FREAKY FRIDAY
US, 1976, 97 minutes, Colour.
Barbara Harris, Jodie Foster, John Astin.
Directed by Gary Nelson.
Freaky Friday was a great Disney success of 1976-77 . This may have been unexpected because the budget looks very thin especially in a lot of studio work and not particularly good stand-ins for star heroine Barbara Harris with her stunt work. The film employs the vice versa principle and mother and daughter interchange. Barbara Harris is expert at cooky performances and Jodie Foster is expert in presenting sophisticated young girls. This detracts somewhat from the interchange because Barbara Harris does seem childish and Jodie Foster adult. However audiences enjoyed the film thoroughly and young audiences seem to appreciate the fantasy of changed identity and seeing daughter in mothers form trying to cope and mother in daughter's form. The ending suggests a possible sequel with dad and son interchanging! (This kind of film did happen in the 1980s with Vice Versa and Like Father, Like Son.)
1. Audience response to Walt Disney films? Their appeal to the young, adolescents, parents? Satisfying all audiences? The breezy and cute style of Disney films? Apparent here?
2. The enjoyable idea on which the film was based, audience response to this kind of magic and fantasy? The credits and the cartoons, the lyrics of the song, the appeal to children, the appeal to parents? What if..?
3. How well did the film establish both mother and daughter? In their ways of acting, their ways of talking, the reasons for the antagonism, their presuppositions about each other? How enjoyable were the early scenes in the light of this establishing character?
4. The moment of change and the freakiness of the Friday? The immediate effect on Annabelle an she was sitting there with her friends and began to act like her mother? Mother and the way that she was acting at home? What really was happening inside of each? The device of appearances remaining the same while the inside changed? How well was this handled for the audience to understand what was going on and enjoy it? The potential for comedy?
5. Annabelle's day as planned and as lived by her mother: at the drug store, milk shakes and ice creams, her talking with her friends and her seeming arrogance, the trip in the bus, the photo, the photography class, the typing class and the ruining of the typewriters, the humour with the hockey (and the comedy with the two coaches?), her visit to her father and the encounter with the secretary, getting her teeth fixed, her hair and her dress, the water skiing? How did her mother find the day and find it so difficult to cope? What insight did she get into the life of a young girl? What insight did the audience get by this device?
6. Mother's Day with Annabelle living it: the housework, the encounter with the maid, the various bills to be paid, cooking, the various people arriving at the house and her inability to cope, Boris and his coming over, the interview. the skiing? How did Annabelle cope with the day inside her mother? What did she learn? What did the audience learn by this device?
7. The ironic presentation of Dad - as an ordinary American father, his love for his wife, his work, his male chauvinist attitudes, his being the big man at work and planning the sale of the land, the water skiing entertainment, his involvement with his partners, secretary? His lack of awareness in simply ringing up his wife to prepare food and entertain? Did he understand anything by the end of the film?
8. The importance of showing Annabelle having a brother, their clashes, their eventually sharing experiences and Annabelle's discovering that her brother was nice and loved her?
9. The humour of the scenes with Boris, and Annabelle trying to attract him but in the form of her mother? The humour of his visits and the cooking? The driving?
10. The satire on big business, the water skiing events and sinking all the people on the pontoon?
11. The light-hearted touch in various of the events, the childish games, cooking? The more serious things especially with the build-up to the driving of the car and the water skiing and the gliding?
12. How effective were the special effects - in the car chase, the police car split etc.? The mother on the water ski, her stand-in looking more like a man than a woman? Did this matter for the enjoyment of the film?
13. The humour and ironic ending with father and son possibly changing? Even though this was a comedy, how much did it communicate of the generation gap, the need for mutual understanding?
