Mary Rodgers published her novelFreaky Fridayin 1972.
The central concepts always the same.
But watching theFreaky Fridays in chronological order, you see the great world spinning forward around the central archetypes.
Credit: Everett Collection (3); David Bukach/Disney Channel
A happy marriage becomes a divorce becomes a remarriage becomes a momtrepreneurial media event.
Cheap analog thrills like skateboarding and junk food evolve into garage pop-punk and glorious smartphone apps.
The 2003 version ofFreaky Fridayturned 15 on Monday.
Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock
The musical edition airs, appropriately, tonight.
Now its time for water skis!
But much of this firstFreaky Fridayplays weird today.
Everett Collection
Daddys a doofus out of theFather Knows Bestera.
At one point, Foster visits dads office.
Were halfway toIce Stormterritory.
Fosters playing an early Disney notion of rebellion, a hippie square enough for Ford voters.
She looks believably bored, too cool for this lame farce.
The problems here cut deeper than Dads throwing a party at the yacht club.
Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan in ‘Freaky Friday’.Everett
(The IRS, embodied by Drew Carey, is already closing in.)
Theres a new man in moms life, Bill (Alan Rosenberg).
Hes the co-owner of her company, and hes impressively imperfect, learning his own lessons in potential stepdaddery.
David Bukach/Disney Channel
At one point, daughter-in-moms-body goes to a fancy restaurant for an all-important design meeting with a fashion retailer.
Impatient, she declares: I wouldnt wait for my own mother this long.
And after years of analysis, I almost like her.
Did I mention Andrew Keegan as the teen love interest?
Did I mention this whole film builds to a rapturous debut of a new clothing aesthetic?
Stripes on plaids, patterns that dont match, every color mulching brown, the 90s!
The audition is the same night as the rehearsal dinner, oh no!
Love interest Chad Michael Murray wears a Von Dutch shirt, asks You like the Hives?
as an opening gambit toward flirtation.
There are No Beepers, we learn, allowed in the detention room.
The films great fun, directed by Mark Waters with effusive energy.
Lohan plays the kind of stern-smart adult figure she would never believably play as an actual adult.
Curtis is hilarious, and when she gives a wedding toast, the emotion!
Calling home now, swear Ill call more often.
Which also describes, to a certain extent, the pop-punk aesthetic.
In the firstFreaky Fridayfilm, the brain switch happens just because.
Theres this new crush of narrative conception, like a movie has to work hard to explain itself.
When did fictional characters lose their chill?
Maybe thats why the modernizations feel a bit too cosmetic, trending topics plugged in Mad Libs style.
None of theFreaky Fridays really seem to grasp ahold of their eras respective teen cultures.
But theres something especially synthetic here, a smartphones yay!
message diametrically opposed to every recent study aboutthe state of Americas deeply depressed teens.
Then again, the supporting cast of thisFridayis much more diverse than in the previous editions.
So progress has been made.
But the tunes are forgettable, so bland they makeTeen Beach2look likeHigh School Musical 3.
The look is a bit listless, nigh multicam.
Theres a song about a frog dissection, which isnt bad.
In 2041, some current-day kid will claim this film is a masterpiece.
