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Avoid Chinese food at all costs. This is the piece of
gastronomic insight I gained from watching “Freaky Friday,"
the new Disney family comedy directed by Mark S. Waters.
Chinese food is high in fat, it can give you an annoying
MSG headache, and if you’re not careful, a meddling elderly
Chinese waitress might serve you a magic fortune cookie that
makes you switch places with the family member whom you least
respect.
This must be new. Despite all the times my family has spent
Christmas Eve in Chinatown (the greatest Jewish tradition
ever!) I’ve never once seen the "comic body switch"
occur -- at our table or those of other mostly-overweight,
American customers sitting nearby. Considering that “Freaky
Friday” takes place in Southern California, maybe it's
some sort of West Coast “nouvelle cuisine?" Either
that or the comic body switch is a very old, tried-and-true
Hollywood storytelling device.
For those who still don't know what I'm talking about, here
it is in a nutshell: mother and daughter (Jamie Lee Curtis
and Lindsay Lohan) who can’t get along are affected by
mystical spell to make them switch bodies for a day. Yada
yada, hilarity ensues. Mom acts like daughter. Daughter acts
like mom. But what surprised me was that hilarity actually
did ensue. I walked into this film thoroughly expecting to
find it tedious and hackneyed (and be arrested for lurking
in the back of a theater by myself with an audience of mostly
14 year old girls) and instead I found it to be quite charming
and enjoyable. Who knew?
This is actually the third adaptation of Mary Rodgers’
book by the same name. There was the 1976 original, starring
a young Jodie Foster back when she was still grabbing at men’s
crotches, and then there was the unfortunate 1995 TV movie
starring Shelly Long. I’m not even counting the multiple
male versions of this comedic thesis (“Vice Versa”,
“Like Father Like Son," etc) that have popped up
over the years. What also is not new-- based on the opening
weekend's box office-- is that Hollywood correctly understands
that the past is the past and today's deep-pocketed teenagers
probably never saw the old ones or simply don't care. With
that said, I think that the current version of “Freaky
Friday” is the best of the lot.
The film was clever and witty, and to top things off, half
of the cast was made up of beautiful, lithe teenage girls
(If you go for that kind of thing). However, the best teenager
in the cast was 45-year-old Jamie Lee Curtis. Her performance
in this film was a revelation. I honestly had no idea that
there was actual talent behind the pair of bare breasts and
vestigial penis that climbed into bed with Dan Ackroyd in
“Trading Places." Her performance shows an almost
complete lack of vanity, something rare for an actress of
any age. Whether she’s crowd-surfing over the audience
of a talk show or hitching up her low-rider jeans over a black
thong, Curtis acts just like a 15-year-old girl who’s
still figuring out how her body works.
Another thing I learned from watching “Freaky Friday”
is that it’s now okay to for an older woman to lust after
teenage boys. Sure, I’ve been saying that for years,
but it’s good to see Hollywood has finally caught up
with this trend. Between Demi Moore’s recent canoodling
with Ashton Kutcher and Stifler’s Mom gettin’ it
on, this has been the year of the “Middle-Aged-Woman-with-Sex-Drive."
While it falls to Lindsay Lohan to actually kiss the male
teen heartthrob (played by Chad Murray), Jamie Lee Curtis
is the one who gets to have any sort of chemistry with the
boy. Watching the two of them bond over coffee and a discussion
of their favorite rock bands was quite cute, despite their
admission they both preferred Britney Spears to the White
Stripes (I actually groaned out loud when I heard that).
So, in order for mother and daughter to go back to their rightful
bodies they both have to learn to love and respect each other
in a way they never thought possible before yada yada, yada.
This all happens while Curtis’ boring fiancé (played
by Mark Harmon) has to stand idly by as his soon-to-be wife
parades around town on the back of some teen stud’s motorcycle.
When did Mark Harmon become such a pussy? Back in 1986 he
had just won People’s “Sexiest Man Alive” award,
but in this film he’s more emasculated than Harrison
Ford holding Calista Flockhart's purse during an all-day shopping
spree. Jesus, is this what happens to all recipients of the
magazine aisle's most prestigious honor? Nick Nolte (1992)
has become a synonym for an OxyContin-induced crime spree,
Mel Gibson (1991) has the Anti Defamation League on his Aussie
ass, and Ben Affleck’s “Gigli” has just been
banned by the Geneva Convention as cruel and unusual punishment.
Anyway, without giving too much away, the movie ends with
the appropriate lessons learned and some relatively schmaltz-free
movie magic. "Freaky Friday" might not be entirely
original, but it certainly works.
And that's saying lot since everyone knows you just can’t
find good Chinese food outside New York.
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Above:
Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan posing in one of those
typical movie junket photos that nobody ever really looks
at.
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