70s Rewind: 'Freaky Friday,' Body Swap Beginnings
Teen Jodie Foster and mother Barbara Harris swap bodies on a very strange day.
Now Streaming: First published in 1972, Mary Rodgers' novel Freaky Friday pioneered the 'body swap' comedy, following a 13-year-old girl and her mother, who swapped bodies and came to a greater understanding of each other's lives.
Intended for younger audiences, the book taught lessons about empathy that made it an ideal choice for a live-action film adaption by Disney. Rodgers adapted her own book for the screen; Gary Nelson, an experienced director of episodic series and television movies, was chosen to direct.
Young Jodie Foster, a Disney veteran who'd made a tart contribution in Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and then opened eyes wide in a very adult role as a prostitute in the director's Taxi Driver, was at a head-spinning point in her career. Around this same time, she was also The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, and also starred in Alan Parker's musical Bugsy Malone.
In many ways, Jodie Foster appeared to be an adult in a young girl's body; it was easy to think of her as 'old beyond her years,' which made her the perfect choice to play a 13-year-old girl who swaps bodies with her mother when they both happen to express the identical wish at the same moment. No other reason or explanation is given, and, really, any reason or explanation would get in the way of the story.
Much of the film's 98-minute running time is spent, very pleasantly, in the company of Foster enacting her mother inhabiting her early teen body, trying to imitate her manner of speaking and acting and reacting. She is, very literally, 'old for her years,' and she's entirely empathetic as she develops empathy for all the things that a housewife was still expected to do, even if much of her behavior is tied to what might be expected in the 1950s. (Which, after all, still points to how far the general culture needed to progress in the 1970s. Or, at least at Disney, which never ever led the culture. Instead, it has always seemed to lag about 20 years behind.)
Even though this was my first time watching the movie, I fully expected Jodie Foster to be as good as she is, simply because I've seen so many other films she made in the 1970s. What surprised me more was the fine comic performance by Barbara Harris, a graceful and elegant actress who pretends to be ungainly and awkward, without overdoing it.
It's a briskly-paced movie that is filled with moments that made me giggle and laugh. When certain 70s-specific moments arrived, nothing struck me as overtly offensive or insensitive, other than the eye-opening depictions of a housewife who has hired contractors to do every manner of housework. Otherwise, this is a bright and silly movie that remains highly enjoyable. [Disney Plus]