Freaky Friday

A remake of the 1976 film of the same name, 'Freaky Friday' is a surprisingly effective comedy fantasy in which Jamie Lee Curtis plays an overworked mother, Tess Coleman, who finds it difficult to relate to her brash, opinionated daughter, Anna (Lindsay Lohan). Mom's doing her level best to get by with her kids, while trying to maintain a grip on her career, slightly senile father (Gould) and her saintly fiance (Harmon). Young Anna doesn't help matters by rebelling against Tess at every available opportunity, and wears her teenage angst like a badge of honour. After yet another bruising encounter, a Chinese restaurant owner decides to intervene with some old school mysticism, leading to mother and daughter swapping bodies for one wigged out Freaky Friday.

While body transformation movies are just behind serial killer flicks in terms of originality, there's a loose limbed jauntiness about 'Freaky Friday' that is difficult to resist. Much of this is down to the splendid work done by Leigh Curtis and her young foil, Lohan. An actress who never seemed to care much for pushing herself, Curtis supplies a marvellously nuanced comic performance, and Lohan plays off her with no little skill. Waters, who co-wrote the script, captures the tone perfectly, distilling the rhythms of teenage slackerdom and careerist middle age around a well heeled comedy. Good fun.