At first Anna Coleman seems like a typical teenage girl generally angry at the world because nothing seems to go in her favor. She has a teacher who likes to pick on her, a old middle school friend who now bullies her, a crush on an older guy who doesn’t know who she is, and a mom who seems to always side with her brother.
Tess, Anna’s mom, doesn’t see any of this, instead she chooses to believe that Anna is only being difficult because she wants to. Anna craves to be accepted by her peers, her crush, and especially her mother and that’s the reason for her seemingly harsh, angry behavior. It’s also revealed that the reason Anna has been acting out is because she’s worried that Ryan, Tess’ new fiance, will replace her dad who died several years before.
Anna’s mom, Tess, is a renowned psychologist with her own book and practice, yet ironically she can’t seem to figure out how to mend her relationship with her daughter. Tess’ behavior towards her daughter comes from a place of cluelessness and frustration. She simply doesn’t know how to help her daughter or how to interact with her without fighting. Instead of talking to Anna like a typical mother would to her daughter, Tess tries to treat her like one of her patients which Anna greatly resists.
A lot of Anna and Tess’ conflict comes from misunderstandings about the other person’s life, thus the switch allows them to understand everything they could’ve known if they had simply communicated better with each other to begin with. Tess is jealous of Anna’s youth and of her carefree life as a 15-year-old. Anna is also jealous of Tess’ job and the money it gives her and the freedom to spend it however she likes. When they switch bodies, they realize the other person faces a lot more hardship in their daily lives than they first imagined. Anna realizes Tess’ worklife is very difficult and stressful, and Tess realizes Anna’s high school life is more challenging and complicated than she remembered it being for her. By the end of the movie, they realize they would rather be themselves than live another person’s life.
The appeal for this kind of movie comes from the innate curiosity about what it’s like to be someone else and live someone else’s life. This is an impossible desire that can only be fulfilled in fictional movies. This may also come from our desire to be extraordinary and free from the constraints of ordinary life. In that case, this movie has a similar appeal to that of superhero movies.
The switch in Freaky Friday reveals a lot about Anna and Tess’ motivations and inner feelings and helps them to better understand each other. A psychoanalytical examination of the movie shows the deeper reasons behind the conflict between Anna and her mother as well as some of the possible reasons for the movie’s appeal to a wide audience.
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