Freaky Friday (1976)

Director: Gary Nelson
Writer: Mary Rodgers, from her book
Stars: Barbara Harris, Jodie Foster and John Astin

Index: The First Thirty.

For something so iconic that’s remembered so fondly, this is a pretty terrible movie by any standards. What holds up half a century on is its timeless core idea and the performances of the two leads, Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster.

Of course, the idea unfolded in a novel, first published in 1972, but it was adapted by Mary Rodgers, its author, who took the opportunity to dig a little deeper. The book appears to be focused on only one half of the swap, told by Annabel Andrews after she finds herself in her mother’s body. This expands so that it covers both sides of the swap. I should find the book.

The underlying point to all this is that Ellen and Annabel don’t get along, so there’s a lot of moaning, both at and about each other. This is 1976, so Ellen’s just a housewife. At thirteen, of course, Annabel’s still in school. Both of them firmly believe that the other has it easy. This moaning builds until the magic moment when they both say, at the same time, “I wish I could switch places with her for just one day.”

In keeping with the rest of the picture, this switch is overdone and the awful 1976 special effects don’t help either. However, in keeping with the rest of the picture, both actors have a huge amount of fun with the opportunity that it gave them. I was never quite sure that either was truly playing the other actor, but Foster is spot on as an adult in a child’s body and Harris is pretty damn good as the reverse.

Now, for anyone who’s been bridling at me for two paragraphs for using “just” in relation to “housewife”, that’s really Annabel thinking not me. She believes that her mum sits around painting her nails and watching TV, just as her mum believes that high school’s a doddle. The film gives both of them a capable wake up call until it’s time for them to properly appreciate each other and then they can switch back.

It really is a good setup, but this version is a mangled version of the idea. Maybe its biggest problem is that, as a comedy, it’s played very much for laughs but not for realism. There are no reasons why it couldn’t have done both and it would have been much better. I followed up with the third version, from 2002, with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan, and, while that’s not perfect either, it mostly finds that balance.

In fact, it’s a much better version in almost every way. Harris is excellent here, but Curtis is better. The script is a hundred times better. The fortune cookie gimmick that triggers the change makes more sense than simply wishing at the same time. The more dated elements of this version are handled better there. The only element that may be better here is Foster, but if Lohan doesn’t match her, she comes close.

Of course, I’m not reviewing that version or the other two (1995 is Shelley Long and Gaby Hoffmann, 2018 is Cozi Zuehlsdorff and Heidi Blickenstaff); I’m reviewing the original, so let me tear it apart, I mean take an honest look.

While Foster pretending that she’s swapped bodies with an adult is so natural to her that it seems like she isn’t even acting, the situations she’s placed into are ridiculous. Ellen isn’t able to tell that the marbles in her shoes are coins. She can touch type but can’t figure out that an electric typewriter has to be switched on first. And at the end of an eight-all game of hockey, she can’t tell which end is which. No, we don’t believe any of these things in the slightest.

Harris pretending that she’s swapped bodies with a child is more work for the actress but it plays more cinematic. However, the situations here are even more unbelievable. I don’t care how much of a tomboy Annabel is, at thirteen she would have done better with make up and not caused a flood by overloading the washer. Annabel’s little brother Ben would have done better and he’s maybe eight years old.

And her day is even busier! Did housewives in 1976 really have their carpets professionally cleaned every Friday? Would Ellen really have scheduled that and auto maintenance, drapery cleaning and deliveries on the same day?

But wait, there’s more! Even if Ellen was OK with it, would she schedule it on the same day as an important work event that Bill’s running for important clients, with an Aquacade her daughter will be waterskiing in after she has her braces off? Not likely.

And would she do something that ridiculous knowing that he’s the precise sort of husband who might require her to cook for twenty-five on three hours notice when the catering falls through? Hell, no. She’s not insane.

If you’re baffled at my wanting realism in a Disney comedy about body swapping, I’ll point you to the 2003 version. That wasn’t realistic either, but it was close enough that I was able to suspend disbelief, sit back in my chair and laugh. In this version, I was complaining at the screen for about an hour before we even got to the Aquacade, which is even more outrageous.

Once we get there, after a car chase packed with every single cliché Disney could find in a previous writer’s bin, I mostly wondered why Barbara Harris didn’t jump her waterskis over a shark. Maybe the shark fell through and Bill couldn’t get Ellen on the phone to conjure up a replacement on three hours notice.

Now, it isn’t all bad. The first scene after the switch, when Annabel pretends that she’s only mimicking her mum and her friends join in, is funny. Foster has a good scene on the bus and Harris has a few dealing with Mrs. Schmauss, a grumpy maid played by Patsy Kelly. Maybe my favourite was a dramatic scene, when Annabel learns that Ben doesn’t really hate her at all.

Mostly, though, the script needed throwing out completely so someone else could write it. It’s routine for a book to be better, but it tends to be less obvious when the author adapts it to the screen. It’s telling that, even with such a popular children’s book behind her, Wikipedia doesn’t even detail Rodgers’s bibliography.

If this succeeds at all, it’s because of the two lead actresses, who succeed despite the script not because of it. Patsy Kelly was an inveterate scenestealer but she can’t steal even one from Harris. Similarly, not one of many child actors steals anything from Foster, with only Sparky Marcus memorable among them as Ben.

Oddly, Bill is played by John Astin, arguably the most accomplished scenestealer anywhere in Hollywood, but he tones down his shtick so they don’t have to battle him too. He’s decent, but it’s easily the most subdued I’ve seen him.

It feels like the end of an era for Foster after five movies in 1976, but it wasn’t. She had one Disney movie to go in Candleshoe, but her next two were French and Italian respectively.