Freaky Friday

Gregor Samsa's "Metamorphosis" to insect form is no more disconcerting than the opening of Freaky Friday: "When I woke up this morning, I found I'd turned into my mother. There I was in my mother's bed. . . with my father sleeping in the other bed. I had on my mother's nightgown and a ring on my left hand." But once past the alarming Oedipal implications, which Ms. Rodgers mercifully ignores, this becomes a conventional situation comedy in which 13-year-old Annabel, whose mother has switched "bods" to teach her a lesson, tries unsuccessfully to cope with cooking, laundry, budgeting, and all that. The scenes get wilder as Annabel-as-mother fires the bigoted cleaning woman, confers with Annabel's teachers about her outrageous behavior, and calls the police to help locate the son/little brother she's misplaced. At the height of a company crisis mother switches back (just how is never explained) and the family sits down to a meal prepared by dreamboat Boris from upstairs - only as Boris has a nose cold (really an allergy to his mother), what is announced as Boris's meatloaf turns out to be Morris's beetloaf. It all ends as a lesson in mother-knows-best, and the rest is like the silly TV show you hate yourself for laughing at. . . but can't stop. (Kirkus Reviews)