JustMattHenry.com: gossip, life and humor

                                                                                                            Matthew W. Henry

Freaky Friday

            I know that to admit that this movie made me cry makes me kind of a dork.  I also know that admitting I went by myself to this movie and cried makes me a little bit more of a dork.  Admitting that I went to this movie by myself, cried, and really enjoyed it makes me…well, actually, pleasantly surprised.

            Starring Jamie Lee Curtis—penis, vagina, both, whatever, love her—and newcomer to the ‘tween celebrity world Lindsay Lohan (who was also in the straight to video Disney disaster Life Size with Tyra Banks—one of my favorite movies.  Not surprised, are ya?), I have waited for this movie ever since I saw the preview.  I swear, no matter how many times I see Jamie Lee Curtis scrunch up her face and scream, “I look like the crypt keeper!” it makes me laugh every damn time. 

            The story is simple:  mother and daughter don’t get along (do they ever really?), they don’t understand each other (frankly, I don’t understand women either), somehow a fateful dinner at a Chinese restaurant leads to them waking up in each others’ bodies, blah blah blah.  The story has been told a million times in classics such as…the original Freaky Friday with Jodie Foster, Like Father, Like Son—starring Dudley Moore and Kirk Cameron (as an aside here, if anyone has seen the E! True Hollywood Story on Growing Pains, can we just agree that Kirk Cameron is an uptight bitch?  I think we can.)—and then there’s that other one with Fred Savage and Judge Reinhold…I want to say Twins, but no, that’s Danny Devito and…somebody. 

            Anyway, so the story’s been done.  Go and see this movie for the performances.  Lindsay Lohan is adorable.  She’s the next Hillary Duff.  Yeah, no one over the age of twelve knows who she is either.  Jamie Lee is up on that screen (and we all know she hasn’t really been there much lately) having the time of her life playing a teenager trapped in the body of a former slasher film scream queen.  She has not been this funny since True Lies…with…now, I know Tom Arnold was in it…and the guy with the accent?  Him.  He was in it.  I’m predicting, at the very least, a nomination for best actress in a musical or comedy at the Golden Globes.  I am also predicting that she will lose to Renee Zellweger because she has won that for the past decade or something.  She sings, she dances, and she’ll get fat for a film!  Let’s give her an award! 

            Let yourself be manipulated by this movie.  Just let go.  Suspension of disbelief; it is the only way to truly enjoy a movie, good or bad.  Movies are all about manipulation, they tell us what to see, to hear, and through that, if you allow it, what to feel.  That’s why I enjoyed this film.  Of course, it has its cheesy moments, and the ending is, oh my god, schmaltzy as all get out, but it did tug on my heart strings…tugged enough to let one or two tears out, no more, not like I was bawling’ away.    I’m not embarrassed about a couple tears, I tell you! 

            Freaky Friday is more family-friendly fun in the Disney tradition of The Princess Diaries and…well, shoot, honestly, I can’t think of any other recent live-action Disney films along those lines.  Wait.  They did a remake of The Parent Trap (with Lindsay Lohan, again.  I think someone’s sleeping with a producer).  What up, Diz?  Recycling old hits?  Shall we call you P. Dizzy?  Remakes, theme park rides…one might suspect the Magic Kingdom is all dried up.  Freaky Friday, however, is fresh, updated, in tune with the times, and is not so much a remake as a remodel.  ‘Nough said.  Enjoy.