Recently I rewatched the 2003 hit classic Freaky Friday, and to my surprise, I found it incredibly stressful and concerning. If you’ve been living under a rock for the past twenty years and have never seen or heard of the movie, let me be the first to enlighten you on what Freaky Friday is. The movie follows Anna and Tess Coleman, a mother-daughter duo who couldn’t be more different from one another, and their fun and quirky hijinks that ensue when they accidentally switch bodies. Upon first glance, this might seem like a fun and entertaining movie to watch with your family, but behind it lies a dark and twisted nightmare. After discovering such a thing, I’ve taken it upon myself to let the people know what they’re missing and inform them, so that they too could be spared of witnessing such a terrible thing. So, without further ado, here’s a list of all the weird and stressful things in Freaky Friday.
1. The premise of the movie – This one is pretty self-explanatory, but I will go into detail in just a bit. First off, it might seem like a great idea for a movie (and it is), but it still doesn’t make it any less weird. Just think about it: for a second, one day you’re completely fine going about your day and the next morning you wake up in someone else’s body. That alone should freak you out, but considering it’s also the body of the person you least get along with, in this case being your mother, it makes it about ten times more insufferable. I can’t stress enough the fact that no longer possessing your own body should send anyone spiraling (especially when you consider the popular troupe is done with opposing genders to create more tension between two leads and inevitably have them end up together à la It’s a Boy Girl Thing.)
2. How the switch itself happens – So the reason why the switch happens is a crash course of events. We already know Anna and Tess do not get along at all, they end up getting in a huge fight at a Chinese restaurant and the mother of the owner of the restaurant takes it upon herself to give them the key to the switching of the bodies: a fortune cookie. Which brings me to the question, how does she know of this hidden power that the fortune cookies possess? Does it only work when that specific fortune is used and said out loud? And most important of all, who does she think she is to determine when two people should switch bodies and how is that the best solution to whatever problem they’re facing? If you think about it, the woman is literally playing God as a funny little hobby, and expects no one to be mad at her.
3. The casting – this one isn’t really concerning, but I find it insane (in a good way). First up, the two leads being 00s movie royalty Lindsay Lohan and Activia’s number one client, Jamie Lee Curtis. Then you have Mark Hammond, who would star in NCIS as Special Agent Gibbs. Willie Garson, aka Stanford Blatch from Sex and the City, as Evan the needy and neurotic patient; then you have Sandy Ryerson himself from Glee, as that awful and inept teacher, Mr. Bates. Finally, rounding off that list of characters, there’s The Chad Michael Murray playing Anna’s love interest. I could go on with more because this movie really is a big game of who’s who in Hollywood.
4. The door – as a parenting decision Tess decided it’s a good idea to take away Anna’s door. She literally takes away a door. Where does she put it? No one knows nor asks. I gotta say as a therapist, she really fumbled the bag with that one.
![Freaky Friday (2003): [puts two chopsticks in his nose] Look, I’m a walrus! http://celebquote.com/3477](https://i0.wp.com/live.staticflickr.com/8484/8237417592_bbe7ff90fd.jpg?resize=500%2C270&ssl=1 "Freaky Friday is much weirder and scarier than we remember… 5")
5. The way Jamie Lee cuts the underwear off from the little kids face – when I tell you this scene gave me such anxiety it’s not even a joke. She’s just cutting away bits by bits instead of looking at the thing and realizing where she needs to cut.
6. The grandpa thinking the little brother wears thongs – I don’t even know how to explain this one. I know it’s a joke, but yeah, still… no words.
7. The Halibut – it’s crazy to me how much Tess is willing to pay for halibut. A fish, which up until today I didn’t even know existed. Not kidding, I genuinely thought this fish was fictional.
8. Chad Michael Murray’s entire character – this is one is probably the reason for the making of the list in the first place. Let’s start with the fact that we do not know his age, which is stress-inducing to say the least. He’s not a student at Anna’s high school, so that means he graduated already. How long ago? No clue. So, if he doesn’t attend the school, what does he do? The answer is he works there. He works there. No words. So, he’s easily over 18 and maybe even 21 by the looks of that weird goatee he tries to pull off. I get that he’s a cool guy with his bike, long hair and indie taste in music, but he has no business being interested in a 15-year-old girl!
9. Chad’s infatuation with the mother – this deserves its own section on the list. When I tell you that this man really thought and considered the idea of becoming involved with Anna’s mother was concerning. The lengths this man went to get with Jamie Lee’s character (granted it wasn’t really the mother because of the whole-body switching thing) and I mean he really committed. Screaming to the top of your lungs “Hit me baby one more time” (indie/alt version) type of commit. He was fully prepared to become that poor girl’s stepfather and crashing the wedding if it meant he could be with her. For my sake, the switch successfully happens, and he ends up dating Anna (still very creepy, but just know he’s not off the hook with that).
10. The concert – this might just be me complaining, but no way in hell did anyone believe Anna actually played that solo. I know the mom doesn’t know how to play the guitar, but the least she could do was sell the performance more, it looked like The Beach Boys guitarist was playing up there or anyone from Archie comics for that matter.
11. The ending – if the movie wasn’t stressing enough the ending really made sure my anxiety should flare up once again. The lady really did not learn anything from the first switching situation, because she once again tries to do it with the grandpa and the little brother. Thankfully, the lady’s daughter successfully tackles both, but who knows for how long until that woman tries it again.
BONUS: The movie has been adapted 4 times – there’s the original one from 1976, the made-for-tv 1995 version, the 2003 one (which is the one I’m discussing), and the 2018 musical which completely flopped.
We’ve reached the end of the list, I’m sure there’s more things I could add to it, but for now that’s all I could think of. What we can take away from this is that Freaky Friday is a really fun, yet weird movie. It certainly wasn’t made to be overly analyzed or picked apart like I did just now, but this could also be interpreted as something fun that anyone can do with a movie they watch. If you haven’t seen it, I hope you check it out and see if you agree with what I say and if you’ve already seen it, you could rewatch it like I did and see what else you find.