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Her irrepressible teenage streak and her gift of comic timing serve her very well in "Freaky Friday," Disney's remake of its 1976 comedy that has a mother and daughter cursed -- and, it turns out, blessed -- with switching bodies for one day.

Tess Coleman (Curtis) is a psychologist who understands her patients' pains and anxieties quite well but can't seem to relate on the most basic level to her moody, mildly rebellious 15-year-old daughter, Anna (Lindsay Lohan). "Bye, honey," Tess chirps when dropping off Anna at school. "Make good choices!"

Two days before the widowed Tess is to marry Ryan (Mark Harmon), Tess and Anna are clashing in a Chinese restaurant over maid-of-honor Anna's desire to ditch the wedding rehearsal dinner for a while so her garage band can try for its big break at the Wango Tango concert auditions at the House of Blues. Neither has a clue about what is important to the other.

The proprietor intervenes with some wacky fortune cookies, and the spell is cast that will make for one freaky Friday for the battling pair. The fortune tells them an act of selfless love will undo the spell, but they overlook that important clue while absorbed in their attempts to preserve, in the mother's case, a career and relationship with Ryan and, in the daughter's case, a budding romance with a really cute guy named Jake (Chad Michael Murray).

Throughout that Friday, their struggles range from wardrobe panic and strange turns of phrase (Anna barks "Don't start with me!" at Tess, while the normally affectionate, sedate Tess sneers "Loser!" at her younger son, played by Ryan Malgarini) to the day-to-day matters each presumed the other skated through. Anna cannot cope with Tess' battery of communication devices, let alone finalize wedding details and treat her patients. And Tess, sporting Anna's belly ring, is a fish out of water among school friends, teachers and tests.

Along the way, they pick up insights about each other's struggles and learn valuable lessons from listening to comments not intended for their own ears.

A turning point for both comes when Anna's bandmates nab her at the rehearsal dinner and plead with her to join them at the House of Blues. The very unmusical Tess never really enjoyed or supported her daughter's hobby, but now she must pretend to know what she's doing with a guitar, for Anna's sake.

It's hard to decide which one steals that scene -- Curtis convincingly wailing on the guitar from the wings or the wide-eyed Lohan bopping about on stage, unplugged, with moves Tess probably picked up from watching the Archies.

Lohan, best remembered for her feature debut as the twins in Disney's 1998 version of "The Parent Trap," remains a genuine charmer without cutesying up the role. Her Anna isn't perfect, nor is she trying to be, so you can't help rooting for her.

There's plenty for any 40-something mom to envy in Curtis' role as well -- from the high-spirited wardrobe her daughter buys and the way she puts the sensible Volvo's pedal to the metal, to the sparkle in her eyes as she flirts with the adorable Jake.

Director Mark Waters and first-time screenwriter Heather Hach have given a fresh sensibility to a oft-told fable of walking in another's shoes, be they sensible pumps or frisky Jimmy Choos.