Freaky Friday (1976)

Film: Freaky Friday (1976)

Stars: Jodie Foster, Barbara Harris, John Astin, Sparky Marcus

Director: Gary Nelson

Oscar History: No nominations, though both Foster & Harris (and the Original Song "I'd Like to Be You for a Day") were nominated for Golden Globes, so it was relatively close to inclusion.

Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2021 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different one Alfred Hitchcock's Leading Ladies.  This month, our focus is on Barbara Harris-click here to learn more about Ms. Harris (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

As I mentioned last weekend, Barbara Harris had an unusual film career, and it's not entirely clear what caused it.  Harris seemed to take long breaks in her career, sometimes very long ones (we'll talk more about that in two weeks when we get to the conclusion of our month devoted to her), and at least a few of these were voluntary.  Her offbeat persona seemed a bit at a loss in the 1970's, though, in a way it might not have been a decade later when the 1980's were more welcoming to comedic talents & nontraditional beauties (the best comparison I can make to Harris might be Madeline Kahn, who like Harris also enjoyed a long stage career interspersed with memorable film roles) so it's possible she also struggled to find work that suited her.  This series focuses exclusively on movies I'd never seen before, and so we are going to skip what is generally considered to be Harris' best performance, as Albuquerque in Robert Altman's Nashville (one of my all-time favorite films, and a performance I would've definitely nominated Harris for in my personal awards), and move to the height of her movie stardom in 1976, where she won two Golden Globe nominations, including for today's sleeper Disney hit.

(Spoilers Ahead) Freaky Friday is one of the many body-swapping comedies that audiences in the 1970's & 80's became obsessed with, and is about Annabel (Foster), a 13-year-old girl who hates her braces, has a crush on the boy-next-door, and struggles in school (despite an aptitude for learning), who on Friday the 13th swaps bodies with her uptight, perfect housewife mother Ellen (Harris), who cannot make a connection with her daughter.  The two try to make their own lives work, at first assuming the other one has it easy, but eventually gaining an appreciation for the other, attempting to deal with a 30-person meal last minute for an adult Annabel and a young Ellen having to win a field hockey game (with less than happy results).  The two eventually switch back, firmly understanding each other & vowing to have a better relationship going forward.

Freaky Friday was one of a number of Disney films that Lindsay Lohan made her name off of during the successful period of her young career (Lohan also made The Parent Trap and Herbie Fully Loaded, the latter being her last commercial success to date).  Lohan's film was how I was familiar with the Freaky Friday franchise, as I saw this in high school & loved it-Jamie Lee Curtis is superb as the mother, and Lohan & Curtis play well off of each other.  The film also allows more interactions between the two post-swap, helping each other & making it feel like a truly earned relationship build, rather than just something they both do away from each other, which is what Freaky Friday does.  Harris & Foster only have one scene together post-swap, and never interact while they're "in each other's bodies."

This is the wrong choice, and Disney was wise to correct it because the original Freaky Friday is an unmitigated bore.  Even if it's your first body-swapping comedy, you still are going to see every joke coming a mile away, and it's ridiculous how clueless both women are about their counterparts' lives.  I know that in the 1970's the assumption was that parents were less-aware of what was going on in their children's lives, but come on-Ellen in her daughter's body at least has to realize how ludicrous she's going to sound if she doesn't at least tamp down her behavior, and Annabel somehow knows how to properly stuff a turkey, but doesn't know where her mother keeps her checkbook?  It's a stupid movie, and while the lead actresses do their best (Harris is fun, in particular), it doesn't save a slog of a film from collapsing on its premise at least twenty minutes in.