Freaky Friday

Hitting the nail on the head of mother-daughter relationships--and doing so with amusing savvy and imaginative good humor--this Disney remake is a sublimely fun-for-all delight. Magnetic Lindsay Lohan (whose charm also carried the studio's 1998 Parent Trap remake) and a revitalized Jamie Lee Curtis couldn't be more ideally cast as an exasperated teenager and her harried, headshrinker mom, both of whom are given new insights into their contentious relationship when their bodies are swapped through a fortune cookie hex. Natural, witty, and droll in their own bodies for the movie's first act, the actresses take recognizable archetypes and turn them into their own unique personalities, then seamlessly adapt each other's attitude and body language after the switcheroo. The chaos that ensues (due to school tests, once-in-a-lifetime rock band auditions, bratty little brothers, neurotic psychotherapy patients, and impending nuptials) is even smarter and more creative than the 1976 original. Highly recommended. [Note: DVD extras include both widescreen and full screen versions of the film, a cute menu-altering tie-in to the film, an eight-minute behind-the-scenes “Backstage Pass with Lindsay Lohan” featurette, two minutes of “Freaky Bloopers,” two brief alternate endings and a deleted scene with intros by director Mark Waters, the music videos “What I Like About You” by Lillix and “Me vs. the World” by Halo Friendlies, Easter eggs, a soundtrack spot, and trailers. Bottom line: always nice to have both viewing formats on one disc, even if the actual extras are a bit on the skimpy side for this excellent family film.] (R. Blackwelder)