PHOTO BY GLEN WILSON / DISNEY

In considering “Freakier Friday,” I found myself thinking about the former television network ABC Family. This film seems tailor-made to unfold over a three-hour block on ABC Family — half-watched, with frequent commercial interruptions, ready to provide comfort viewing and a smattering of positive emotions to slightly disinterested viewers.

That’s faint praise and also faint criticism. “Freakier Friday” is gentle, kind and watchable. It’s also almost devotedly bland and lacking in humor, seeming to remember only every half hour or so to throw in a food fight or a bit of physical comedy to break up a rote (if metaphysical) family drama. It is as inoffensive as it is unmemorable, while remaining utterly pleasant.

Ideal ABC Family content. As a theatrical release, though, it’s more than a bit thin.

“Freakier Friday” is a sequel to the 2003 film “Freaky Friday,” one of a staggering four films with that exact title based on Mary Rodgers’ 1972 children’s book. (This tally does not count the horror film “Freaky,” which uses the same body-switching concept on a serial killer and his target, although that was a much more inventive use of the material.)

In 2003, parent Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis) and daughter Anna (Lindsay Lohan) swapped bodies and learned lessons about family and communication. Now, Anna’s the mother and Tess is a grandmother, both with high-pressure careers; Anna is the widowed mother of Harper (Julia Butters), and she’s planning to marry successful chef Eric (Manny Jacinto), who has his own daughter, Lily (Sophia Hammons), in tow.

Harper and Lily don’t get along and are hoping to forestall or disrupt their parents’ nuptials (oddly, a plot lifted and reversed from another Lohan remake, “The Parent Trap”). That old black magic strikes again, however, once again shuffling the generations; Harper and Anna switch bodies, as do Lily and Tess.

Would it have made more sense to have Lily swap with her father? Probably, but that would’ve sidelined Curtis, who is the clear bright spot of the film. Among her many talents is the ability to go far over the top with physical comedy and mannerisms while still finding a path to heartfelt emotion; that earned her an Oscar for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” and she reminds us of her powers even with a script written in Hallmark aphorisms.

“Freakier Friday” has a few twists and a few side characters too many and continues well past the point where it should wrap things up. It does manage to keep the proceedings breezy, and the cast is likable; Butters, lauded for her performance (at age 10) in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” shows star power, and Jacinto does well. It’s an agreeable trifle that never even considers that it might be anything more.

ABC Family rebranded as Freeform, by the way. You can expect “Freakier Friday” to air regularly on Freeform for the next decade or so.

My Rating: 5/10

“Freakier Friday” is now playing in theaters.