Jamie Lee Curtis stands out in a fresh and funny 'Freaky Friday'

Disney's latest foray into cinematic archeology turns up a minor treasure: a family-friendly remake funnier, fresher and more affecting than the flavorless original.

MOVIE REVIEW

FREAKY FRIDAY

DIRECTOR: Mark Waters

CAST: Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, Mark Harmon

RUNNING TIME: 97 minutes

RATING: PG for mild thematic elements and some language

WHERE: Alderwood, Bellevue Galleria, Cinema 17, Crossroads, East Valley 8, Factoria, Gateway Center 8, Issaquah, Kirkland Parkplace, Lewis & Clark, Metro, Mountlake 9, Oak Tree, Pacific Place, Redmond Town Center 8, Valley Drive-In, Woodinville 12

GRADE: B

In the nonsensical '70s comedy "Freaky Friday," mother Barbara Harris and daughter Jodie Foster bicker harmlessly over who has the toughest life and switch bodies through a bit of convenient movie magic so they can fumble through a day in the life of the other and get a little perspective.

The same gimmick applies here but the stakes are more serious. This time it all occurs the day before the wedding of a single mom (Jamie Lee Curtis) to a man whom her teenage daughter, Anna (Lindsay Lohan, star of another Disney remake, "The Parent Trap"), refuses to accept. Mark Harmon (in a lovely performance) radiates decency and kindness as the husband and father-to-be, but to Anna he's an interloper usurping the place of her late father.

Smart, sassy and somewhat self-absorbed, Anna has all the usual (and a few unusual) problems of a teenager. She chafes under Mom's inflexible rules; her vindictive English teacher and childhood pal turned bitchy campus cheerleader really are out to get her, and her hard rocking garage band's big break conflicts with the wedding rehearsal dinner.


Anna (Lindsay Lohan, right) and her mom Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis) magically switch bodies in "Freaky Friday."

Her power professional psychologist Mom is so distracted with work and wedding that she's lost touch with mercurial Anna. Until fortune cookie voodoo shifts their souls around in a supernatural shell game.

One of Hollywood's most underrated and underutilized comedians, Curtis surfs the emotional tides of her inner teenager with fidgety nonchalance, tossed-off insolence and groaning, eye-rolling impatience. Poor Lohan is stuck in killjoy mode, all stiff composure and repression.

Director Mark Waters apparently forgets that Mom is a savvy parent before the switcheroo and Lohan falls into a snappy but simple parody of grown-up confidence and reason battling the unreasonable forces of high school life and teenage crushes.

Waters, however, is a generous director and he balances the deft comic scenes with the growing mutual respect between mother and daughter. For all the contrivances of the tale, the emotional foundation of the story keeps it grounded.

Sean Axmaker is a movie reviewer and free-lance film writer based in Seattle. He can be reached via e-mail at seanax@hotmail.com.