Freaky Friday

Body switching has been a plot device in plenty of films, including a spotty run in the late 80s. Sometimes they work see Big and Vice Versa and sometimes they fall with a flat thud Like Father, Like Son and 18 Again. The new film Freaky Friday, a remake of the 1976 film that featured a young Jodie Foster, falls into the first category. Its a clever and, at times, very funny film that features two fine performances that click from the beginning. Dr. Tess Coleman (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her 15-year-old daughter, Anna (Lindsay Lohan), are struggling with their relationship. Tess seems too distracted by work and her impending remarriage to see that Anna has difficulty accepting the changes in the familys dynamics. Anna is consumed with her garage band and a hunky young schoolmate (Chad Murray) and doesnt understand that her mom really does have Annas best interests in mind. Tess and Anna get into a verbal spat at a restaurant, where each dismisses the others life as easy. The restaurants co-owner intervenes and voila! the two magically switch identities. This is where Freaky Friday really takes off. Curtis shows her comedic flare with gusto, perfectly capturing the mannerisms of a 15-year-old in her 44-year-old body. She is outstanding here, evoking memories of some of her earlier work in movies like Trading Places and A Fish Called Wanda. But Lohan proves more than capable of matching Curtis punchline for punchline. Whether its to scold her mother or to offer motherly advice to Annas friends (while gently tucking at one of the friends shirts that exposes her midriff), Lohan shows the ability to be the grown-up in the mother-daughter relationship. Heather Hachs screenplay does offer a few tweaks on the original there is no washer-dryer disaster and no jet ski finale but it still stays true to the originals family appeal. Freaky Friday does have its faults. Particularly, there are moments that are too mushy for their own good, but they are easily dismissed because of Curtis and Lohans performances. Its rare for a remake to exceed the original, but this may be the case. It definitely joins Holes as one of 2003s biggest surprises. From freaky to floppyAlso opening this week is the Ben Affleck-Jennifer Lopez film Gigli (F), which has garnered some of the most negative buzz of any film ever released. Is it really as bad as the buzz? In a word, yes. Affleck and Lopez play rival mob contractors hired to kidnap the autistic brother (Justin Bartha) of a federal prosecutor and force the prosecutor to drop charges on a Mafia kingpin (Al Pacino in a borderline-embarrassing cameo).I think director Martin Brest (Midnight Run, Beverly Hills Cop) is trying to make this into a romantic comedy, but its hard to tell, since Affleck and Lopez have zero sexual chemistry. Part of the fault there lies in Brests screenplay, which decides to make Lopezs character a lesbian, creating one of the most awkward romantic barriers in cinematic history. The film isnt just bad, its jaw-droppingly bad. Bartha is stuck doing a bad Rain Man imitation, culminating in a character who provides more unintentional laughs than all of the films intentional jokes combined. I could go on and on about the films flaws Affleck and Lopez are completely unbelievable as mob contractors, the dialogue is atrocious, etc. but perhaps the best example of how bad a film this is lies in the audience I screened the film with. There were four of us watching Gigli when it began. By the end, I had the theater to myself. When 75 percent of your audience walks out by the halfway point, its never a good sign. Gigli is playing at the Great Escape 12. Sportswriter/movie reviewer Micheal Compton, who plans on naming his first daughter Jamie Lee J-Lo, can be reached for comment by e-mailing mcompton@bgdailynews.com.