From The Parent Trap to Mean Girls, Lindsay Lohan’s dominance in pop culture through the late ‘90s/early ‘00s was inescapable. And with good cause, because some of those films went on to become true classics, with many getting a second life with either musical remakes (Mean Girls) or in the case of Freaky Friday, legacy sequels. Surprisingly, that’s actually a great thing, because with Freakier Friday, the movies aren’t the only things getting a second life. Welcome back, Lohan!

The first Freaky Friday from 2003 was the second remake of the classic Jodie Foster/Barbara Harris Disney film from 1976. As big of a success as the ’70s film was, the ’03 film eclipsed it in popularity and iconography, becoming a surprise hit that earned star Jamie Lee Curtis a Golden Globe nomination, and turning Lohan into an absolute household name overnight. It was also admittedly pretty racist, attributing the body swap to cringey, offensive “Chinese magic” stereotypes. Yikes. Thank God we’ve grown a bit since 2003. That said, as a family film, it was still praised both by critics and audiences, establishing its own identity as a film from its ‘70s predecessor, and becoming iconic enough to spawn a sequel (which I’m thrilled manages to make up for some of the previous film’s offenses).

Cynics may look at Freakier Friday and write it off simply as a nostalgia cash grab from Disney to make a quick dollar (and to a degree, like any movie made these days, that’s partially true). However, the surprising thing about the film is that, despite the repeat premise, there’s enough heart and humor in the film to make it actually work. That’s all thanks to themes that still feel relevant, some improvements in terms of representation, and, most of all, an incredible cast.

Freakier Friday does follow almost the same exact beats as the ’03 film. There’s a wedding, there’s familial disarray, and there’s a body swap screwball premise meant to incite laughs (and it mostly does). This time around, though, like any good legacy sequel, time has transformed our heroes, as Tess (Curtis) is now a helicopter grandmother trying to co-parent the now middle-aged Anna’s (Lohan) teenage child, Harper (Julia Butters). In addition to being a mother, Anna is also now a successful, and very responsible label manager in the music industry, representing a Taylor Swift-esque pop star named Ella (played by Never Have I Ever‘s Maitreyi Ramakrishnan).

Things get crazy when Anna meets the man of her dreams in Eric (Manny “Bortles” Jacinto), and a whirlwind romance blossoms into a wedding within a short six-month period. Unfortunately Eric, a widower, comes with a teenage daughter (a classmate of Harper’s) named Lily (Sophia Hammons) who absolutely clashes with Harper on every level. However, thanks to another mystical psychic (thankfully no stereotypes with Vanessa Bayer this time) Harper switches bodies with Anna, Lily switches bodies with Tess, and hijinks ensue.

Frankly, if The Hangover II has taught us anything, it’s that racist comedy sequels that repeat the same exact premise as the first shouldn’t work. However, unlike The Hangover II (and to a degree the ‘03 film) not only is Freakier Friday not racist, but it also takes that repeat premise and does something equally poignant and charming with it. It’s also actually funny.

The strength of this movie lies almost entirely with its cast. We expect Curtis to be terrific of course, and she is. She’s willing to go the distance for the laugh, whether it’s crawling around on the floor of a record store or taking passport photos with lip plumper. However, she generously gives space for her co-stars to shine, taking a back seat with just a bit less to do, but making the most of every scene she commands.

It genuinely feels like Curtis, a producer on this film, and director Nisha Ganatra are trying to remind audience how good Lohan can be, and how talented Butters and Hammons are. And Lohan still has it! She’s hilarious and, like Curtis, able to skillfully handle the physical comedy, but also still be charming after all these years. We genuinely believe this is the same Anna we met in 2003, but a lot more mature. The character and Lohan’s portrayal embody what it really feels like when a Millennial grows up, joins the working world, and tries to raise their kids to be the best they can. She gives an incredibly relatable performance one minute, then as soon as she becomes “Harper,” goes for broke with the slapstick the next. It’s nothing short of endearing.

Speaking of endearing, expect nothing less than that from the two actresses that hold their own against Lohan and Curtis: Butters and Hammons. Now we knew Butters could act, seeing her do excellent work under Spielberg and Tarantino. And she does a terrific job here emulating Lohan’s intonations and inflections. Like her co-stars she has the versatility to switch between the Harper character and the Anna character seamlessly. However, Hammons also impresses despite being a relatively newer actress.

As Lily, Hammons’ character has a lot more nuance and complexity to cover, as the figure with the most defined arc. Yes a great deal of her performance is spent doing a quieter Curtis impersonation. However, as Anna’s character in the first did, she has to convey a character who has to lash out and put up a front to hide her grief. It’s a bit more difficult than what any of the other cast members (short of Curtis herself who has to play Hammons’ counterpart) has to do, and Hammons pulls it off well, especially given her resume is more green than her costars.

As for the remaining cast members Mark Harmon and Chad Michael Murray return, but to significantly reduced roles. They still have small moments to shine and do what they can with those. However, beyond the four leads, the next biggest role goes to Jacinto! Which is something I’m super happy about. And I have to tell you that “Bortles” is terrific and incredibly charming. I know the ladies will probably appreciate his “Dirty Dancing” moment, but it’s amazing to assess the range Jacinto has as an actor, from the goofiness of Jason Mendoza from The Good Place, to the cunning nefariousness of The Stranger from The Acolyte, and now the almost romcom leading man status of his character, Eric. He and Lohan have terrific chemistry, and Jacinto plays the character with a loving tenderness that makes you actually care about their relationship.

For me, I’m actually very glad the switch this time was not a racist “Chinese magic” bit. It’s something that Ganatra managed to avoid. However, more than that, she attempts to make up for it. Thanks to the inclusion of Jacinto the film does showcase some great callouts to Filipino families, and envisions is a world where Ramakrishnan‘a Ella, a South Asian popstar, can achieve Taylor Swift levels of success (though I don’t love how she is essentially upstaged by two White women at her own concert, but narratively I get it). It’s also nice that Rosalind Chao and Lucille Soong return, albeit in a thankfully much more tasteful way. In short, it’s still flawed, but a vast improvement from the previous movie. And I’m grateful that they’re trying to learn and do better. It’s especially helpful when your director is a POC as well.

Similarly to the first, the film tackles grief, and also the difficulties of being a single parent. There’s a lot of tenderness regarding sacrifices, made, and dreams given up in favor of loving and supporting a family. A lot of that was pretty touching. And I’m glad that, though some of the themes repeat from the first, they’re still as relevant as ever today because family will never stop being complicated.

If there’s something from a cinematic standpoint that qualifies a weakness, it’s most definitely the messiness of the film’s execution. Freakier Friday has a bit too much energy for its own good, particularly in the first act. Yes, this is meant to be a chaotic movie, but it can be a bit too hyperactive in getting us to where the chaos needs to be. In doing so you get a lot of whiplash and the movie feels a lot more “Disney Channel” quality than “Disney Studios” in terms of cheese and pacing. Thankfully it manages to get a bit smoother once the switch happens and the themes become more apparent.

This goes for the script as well. There are moments as this is beginning where a lot of the attempts at humor fall flat. However, thanks to Ganatra’s direction and the commitment of her thespians, juvenile moments generally work, and forced emotional beats come across sincere. It all works, in spite of all too familiar circumstances.

That being said, cash grab or not, it’s hard to stay mad at a movie that actually has a nice sincere heart beneath it all, and manages to make you smile and yearn for simpler times, when Disney did live action charmers. Freakier Friday manages to elevate itself through the charms of its cast and their ability to give it everything they got to earn those smiles and chuckles. And for the most part they succeed. There are nice family messages for kids and parents alike, and they try hard to learn from the racist mistakes of the first by elevating its POC stars in much more tasteful leading roles. It’s not a perfect film by any means, but maybe that’s ok. The whole point of a film like Freakier Friday is to showcase life’s imperfections and messiness, and remind us that the only way to get through it all is with a wink and a smile; a goal the movie adeptly achieves. After all, as the movie proves, if an actress like Lohan can get back up after getting knocked down, so too can we all!

Overall Score (on an entertainment level): B
Overall Score (on a representation level): B