'Freakier Friday' review: Bubbly, but overstuffed sequel with Lindsay Lohan, Jamie Lee Curtis

Bring a spreadsheet to Disney’s new body-switching comedy, "Freakier Friday." You may not need it to keep track of the source material — first a YA novel by Mary Rodgers about a mother and daughter who trade places, then a 1976 comedy with Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster in the respective roles, then a 2003 remake starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan, followed by a 2018 Disney Channel musical — but it might help you while watching this pleasant but rather complicated sequel.

To go the earlier film one better, "Freakier Friday" spans not two but three generations of women while juggling a total of four — count 'em, four — bodies.

Curtis and Merrick native Lohan return as Tess and Anna, who more than 20 years ago literally walked in each other’s shoes. Anna, once a surly teenager, is now raising one, Harper (Julia Butters), who’d rather surf than go to school. Tess, still a psychiatrist, is now the cool, doting grandma who likes to check Anna’s social media feed and swoop in to help out. "It could be healthy for you to unfollow me," Anna offers.

Anna is engaged to Eric (Manny Jacinto), a UK restaurateur with a pouty teen of his own, Lily (a rather good Sophia Hammons). Naturally, the future stepsisters hate each other. Cue an amateur psychic, Madame Jen (a very funny Vanessa Bayer), who accidentally scrambles the identities of all four women: Anna switches with Harper, while Lily switches rather randomly with Tess. Now the two young frenemies — in older bodies — have a common goal: stopping their parents’ marriage.

Like the original, this next-gen sequel leans heavily on jokes about aging (Lily takes a horrified tour of a pharmacy’s senior aisle) and wistful humor about the joys of youth (Tess and Anna, suddenly blessed with teenage metabolism, scarf down burgers and churros.) There are also moments of pathos, as when Harper — in Anna’s body — tries to sabotage Eric’s immigration interview by asking him impossibly detailed questions, only to hear answers that touch her heart. "I’m finding out a lot about myself today," she mutters.

"Freakier Friday" can feel a bit overstuffed. (The screenplay is by Jordan Weiss, of Hulu’s "Dollface.") It brings back Chad Michael Murray as Anna’s old flame, Jake; Stephen Tobolowsky as her old detention-period tormentor, Mr. Bates; and Mark Harmon (blue eyes still dazzling at 73) as Tess’s imperturbable husband, Ryan. A subplot involving the pop star Ella (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), who is managed by Anna, allows the movie to stage a splashy climax at a sold-out concert.

Lohan throws herself gamely into moments of screwball comedy, including a botched attempt to re-seduce Jake. But director Nisha Ganatra, like many before her, can’t keep her camera off Curtis. At 66, Curtis can still do physical comedy ("My brain is telling my body to stand up," she marvels, stuck in a crouch) and she subtly slips into Britishisms to remind you which character she’s playing. As long as her knees permit, Curtis could keep doing these body-switching movies for at least a few more generations.

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com