FREAKIER FRIDAY

Here's the honest trade this movie asks you to make. Twenty-two years after the original, Disney's sequel is genuinely fun — quick, witty writing, a warm story about family and sacrifice, and strong performances from Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan that carry real chemistry. Underneath the comedy is a story about forgiveness and letting go that lands with actual heart.

But the engine of the plot is a psychic palm reader who sets the body-switching curse in motion, and the movie treats soul-swapping — a notion Scripture doesn't support — as a fun, harmless plot device rather than something to question. Add light sexual innuendo, some mild profanity, and a background rainbow flag, and you have a film that's well-made but not one to hand a child unattended.

For adults and older teens who can watch critically and talk about what's true and what isn't, this is a good time at the movies. For younger kids or families wanting an easy, no-questions-asked watch, wait and choose something else.

Anna, once a teenager caught in a body-swap of her own, is now grown — with a teenage daughter, Harper, and a soon-to-be stepdaughter, Lily, who happens to be Harper's archenemy. When Anna falls for Lily's father, Eric, the family collides over the engagement and a possible move to London. At Anna's bridal shower, a goofy psychic senses something familiar in her and her mother, Tess. When the clock strikes midnight, everything changes.

Three stars means this is a solidly good time with a few rough edges. The writing is quick and witty with a real dash of goofy fun, and the leads carry it — Lohan and Curtis both deliver strong, engaged performances, backed by good supporting work. The California setting, costumes, and set design build an immersive, relatable world around the comedy.

The first act drags a bit on the way to the switch, and a few unclean camera transitions may pull sharp-eyed viewers out of a scene here and there. But once the swap happens, the laughs carry the momentum the opening lacked, and the film earns its warmth by the end.

This film wants to be about family — and largely, it is. Mother and daughter learn to forgive each other. A grieving stepdaughter learns to let go and find happiness again. A father is willing to sacrifice for his child. That's a redemptive, Christian-adjacent core, and it's the reason this movie works as well as it does.

But the mechanism that gets the family there is false religion: a psychic sets the body-swap in motion, and the story treats the idea that souls can trade places as a fun premise rather than something untrue. Scripture is direct about turning to palm readers and diviners for answers — it doesn't commend the practice, however goofy the fortune-teller is played for laughs. The film also includes a brief, unremarked-upon background detail — a rainbow flag glimpsed once, with nothing said about it — which is worth noting for parents without over-reading it.

None of that erases the film's better instincts. The story's real subject — two generations learning to walk in each other's shoes long enough to forgive — echoes something true: "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you" (Ephesians 4:32). The film gets the ache for reconciliation right; it just reaches for the wrong tools to get there.

Freakier Friday is a genuinely fun, well-made family comedy with real warmth at its center — and a psychic-powered plot that parents shouldn't hand off without a conversation. Great performances, quick writing, and a story about forgiveness make it worth your time. Our answer stands: worth the trip — adults only. Want something to watch with the younger kids instead? Start with our latest family-friendly picks.