Freaky Friday

If you changed personalities with your kid--actually found yourself in his or her body--would you spend the rest of the day in school? If you found yourself in your mother's body, would you bother cooking a meal for your husband's corporate buffet? Disney's "Freaky Friday", adapted by Mary Rodgers from her popular young adult novel, doesn't quite work; there's no awe in the circumstance involved--just lessons to be learned. Mom Barbara Harris earns points for daughter Jodie Foster at school, while Foster (in Harris' body) gets closer to the guy next door. Both leads are very good however, and Harris is wonderful calling her husband "Daddy" (with a quick switch to "Bill, Dear") and later playing a hot game of softball with a group of boys (while chewing bubblegum AND smoking a cigarette). Foster has some funny outbursts but generally has less to work with (she screws up a typing class, a photography class, band practice and field hockey, but does great in social studies). The movie is far too long, with inertia setting in right about the time Harris is called to the principal's office to discuss her daughter's schoolwork. The slapstick finale, a painful "Love Bug" flashback, is pure juvenalia (complete with a magic twist that makes no sense--not even in this movie's universe), yet the picture was a blockbuster anyway. **1/2 from ****