wenty-two years have passed and a lot has changed in the lives of stern and structured Dr. Tess Coleman (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her headstrong, rebellious daughter Anna (Lindsay Lohan). Now a single mother to her own angsty, obstinate teenager Harper (Julia Butters), Anna struggles to balance her parenting with a demanding job as a manager to a despondent pop star (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan). Then she falls in love with Eric Reyes (Manny Jacinto), another single parent with his own recalcitrant daughter Lily (Sophia Hammons), who happens to be Harper’s biggest school rival. With Anna’s wedding to Eric swiftly approaching and tempers flaring amongst parents, children, and soon-to-be stepsisters, another mysterious and ill-timed body-swapping anomaly occurs, transferring both youngsters into the bodies of the elder Coleman women and vice versa until they all learn a lesson in compassion and acceptance.

Similarly to its predecessor, “Freakier Friday” excels in the emotional drama but stumbles in the comedy. The back-and-forth squabbling between all four women carries an authentic feel even if the dialogue doesn’t always coalesce into a worthwhile argument. When the teenagers determine to anti-Parent Trap their mother and father, the reasons and motives that drive them resonate with a genuineness that’s hard to ignore, and the sentimentality and tensions ratchet up once they’ve realized the damage their actions have caused on a loving family unit. The mother/daughter interactions still carry weight and the young girls shelving their rivalry to carry out their mischievous plot complements the moving moments of their revelatory self-reflections, but the poignancy doesn’t arrive until the final act, leaving middlingly humorous setups to propel the story forward.

Early showcases of Harper and Lily’s verbal and physical jousting are primed for grand laughter but flounder in execution. A bombastic food fight fails to elicit adequate jocosity and the scenarios concocted for the mixed-up personalities rarely lead to the level of cringing awkwardness on display in the 2003 film. Even in buildups prepped for hilarity, like a pickleball match against ludicrously aggressive opponents and a sabotaged immigration interview, the leads aren’t the ones generating the absurdity. Supporting characters spout the best lines and most memorable mockeries while unexpected cameos continually upstage the main act.

“Freakier Friday” sagely expands upon and compounds the brain-hopping mayhem, utilizing both new debacles and recalling previous calamities. The fresh fiascos work infinitely better. However, with four people involved in the switch, confusion oftentimes sets in faster than the fun. In several segments, attempting to track who is stuck in who’s persona overshadows the jokes, allowing opportunities for amusement to fizzle. Lily speaks with a pronounced British accent, but once she’s implanted in Tess’ body, such characterization vanishes. In “Freaky Friday,” there’s never any doubt which Coleman is which and both leads flourish while portraying the other. With this follow-up, the lack of leaning into each girl’s idiosyncrasies lessens the impact, foregoing easy hijinks and relying on more manufactured misadventures. None of the leads perform poorly, but sometimes simpler satire just produces superior results.

– Joel Massie