Setting aside Jodie Foster's good performance, I thought the film was just terrible. Everything about it is badly aged. This was released in 1976, but it felt more like the mid 1960s. But alright, that can be forgiven. What I despised about this film is that the mother (Mrs Andrews) and daughter (Annabel) switch bodies randomly, out of nowhere. The way the body swap happened in the remake was more profound and eventful. Here, it just happens arbitrarily by them saying they don't want to be themselves (whilst the mother is at home and the daughter is at some dine-in).
One very annoying thing in the film is that the body switch happens way too early and prematurely in the film, I think around 10 minutes in (if not less) - You don't get to see Mrs Andrews and Annabel being themselves, so we can get used to them, see how they're like and how they get along with each other. They only spend like 2 minutes together and off she goes to school. At least in the remake, which is a far superior film, we get to see Anna and her mother Tess as themselves for quite a time until they switch bodies. There was a major character development in the remake that absurdly lacked in this one.
As the film continues, the mother (who is now Annabel) begins to act like a silly 8 year old. If the Razzies existed I would've given the actress a nomination for worst supporting actress, honestly. Apparently, we see that she has a crush on a rather unattractive, geeky looking kid next door who creepily looks and acts like a 11 year old boy. Worse even, he is very unlikable and I just couldn't stand that twerp. Towards the end of the film, we have goofy, tiring scenes of Mrs Andrews as Annabel driving her car around and getting into little accidents whilst being pursued by the police - This had to be the most boring and tedious chase scene in film history, so much that I had to skip parts of it to end the torture.
Yet again, out of nowhere, they randomly switch back by uttering words in the likes of "I want to be myself again" (to paraphrase). What made the remake far more superior is that there was a reason to all this and a person was behind their body swap. In addition to that, there was tension and rather intriguing scenes before they switched bodies in the film. This film just lacked all of this. Did I mention that it was too long for its kind? A silly comedy film that takes place in one day should NOT be over 85 minutes long. This film was about to push 100 minutes.
Please watch the 2003 remake instead with the great Jamie Lee Curtis. Skip this uninspired, monotonous, lacking snoozefest.
One very annoying thing in the film is that the body switch happens way too early and prematurely in the film, I think around 10 minutes in (if not less) - You don't get to see Mrs Andrews and Annabel being themselves, so we can get used to them, see how they're like and how they get along with each other. They only spend like 2 minutes together and off she goes to school. At least in the remake, which is a far superior film, we get to see Anna and her mother Tess as themselves for quite a time until they switch bodies. There was a major character development in the remake that absurdly lacked in this one.
As the film continues, the mother (who is now Annabel) begins to act like a silly 8 year old. If the Razzies existed I would've given the actress a nomination for worst supporting actress, honestly. Apparently, we see that she has a crush on a rather unattractive, geeky looking kid next door who creepily looks and acts like a 11 year old boy. Worse even, he is very unlikable and I just couldn't stand that twerp. Towards the end of the film, we have goofy, tiring scenes of Mrs Andrews as Annabel driving her car around and getting into little accidents whilst being pursued by the police - This had to be the most boring and tedious chase scene in film history, so much that I had to skip parts of it to end the torture.
Yet again, out of nowhere, they randomly switch back by uttering words in the likes of "I want to be myself again" (to paraphrase). What made the remake far more superior is that there was a reason to all this and a person was behind their body swap. In addition to that, there was tension and rather intriguing scenes before they switched bodies in the film. This film just lacked all of this. Did I mention that it was too long for its kind? A silly comedy film that takes place in one day should NOT be over 85 minutes long. This film was about to push 100 minutes.
Please watch the 2003 remake instead with the great Jamie Lee Curtis. Skip this uninspired, monotonous, lacking snoozefest.