“You may have my body, breasts, and boyfriend, but you are not me.”

Justin’s rating: What kind of lunch room design budget does this school have?

Justin’s review: Having seen far more body swap movies than is recommended by my primary physician, I find it curious that pretty much all of them involve parents swapping bodies with their kids. Sure, you get your generational divide and all that, but there have got to be more options than just a dad learning to live in his son’s shoes for a day.

That’s what drew me to the generically named Wish Upon a Star — the promise of a body swap with a different setup. In this TV movie, two sisters end up in a foreign body exchange program due to wishing upon a shooting star. Sure, why not?

Thus, popular and fashionable older sister Alex (Katherine Heigl, Under Siege 2) trades places with younger and nerdier Hayley (scream queen Danielle Harris, Urban Legend). Neither are perfect; Alex is struggling with grades and her future, and Hayley is addicted to gum and has a hairstyle that makes her look like the fourth Hanson brother. It’s kind of funny to me that Harris is actually older than Heigl in real life, but they cast her because she’s far shorter than her co-star.

Initially, Hayley is pretty psyched to be an older and more beautiful body — not to mention dating her dream crush. And while Alex finds herself in a living hell of grunge clothes and smart kid classes, at least she can abandon her diet and pig out. In Disney movie fashion, initially they both overact in this mutual crisis, eventually growing together as sisters and friends.

But that sort of family togetherness isn’t going to happen literally overnight. It takes a few days at least, and there’s going to be some wacky misunderstandings and mutual sabotage. It’s all fairly wholesome and dorky, kind of a Clueless-lite with both actors having fun being someone they’re not.

They’re both really adorable in their own way, and it just so happens that feisty and competitive siblings are one of my favorite dynamics. Hayley and Alex quickly ditch the worries about the situation in favor of trying to get even with each other. Hayley breaks Alex’s diet and reunites with her boyfriend, while Alex decides that dressing like a dominatrix and putting on a flashy dance show at lunch is a way to go (suffice to say, this part was pretty scandalous for a Disney channel broadcast). It’s only when they start to empathize with each other’s lives do their attitudes begin to soften and change.

So where are their parents in all of this? Oh, this is one of the best bits of the movie. Hayley and Alex’s parents are both psychiatrists who decide to take a different approach to raising kids by… ignoring them and not interfering at all. This decision couldn’t come on a worse week as both girls start flipping out and ruining their scholastic and social lives.

I’ll freely admit that there’s no part of my life that identifies with anything in Wish Upon a Star. I’ve never been a girl, had a sister, dressed up in hot leather, or starred in a Disney film. And yet I grooved my way right through this sappy, schlocky Lifetime plot. The filmmakers get a whole lot of mileage out of the relationship between these two siblings, and seeing each of them learn what the other’s worlds, interests, and goals are all about was as enjoyable as it was predictable.

So yeah, it was kind of fun. Didn’t blow my world out of the water, whatever that means, but it was a genuinely good way to spend an hour-and-a-half. I think a lot of that is thanks to Heigl and Harris smoothing out the plot’s stupider edges and giving us a pair of siblings that make for entertaining company.

Intermission!

• Frosted lipstick — you’re in the ’90s now!
• Ah the classic movie catcalling by adult men to a teenage girl. That’s certainly not disturbing!
• So much chewed-up gum in this movie
• “Pop a Midol, who said anything about being late?”
• Good parenting is… not parenting at all?
• Making out with your sister’s boyfriend’s photograph
• “We’re sisters, we’re not friends!”
• The gum getting everywhere is giving me a condition
• Toilets can be wishing wells. That’s also going to clog up the drains.
• I laughed when Kyle’s photo changed when she said, “Today, you’re mine!”
• Ice cream and Blockbuster, those were the days
• The three-month rule
• The melted counter in the science class
• Cookies and facial mask
• Hayley driving stick is not going to go well
• Alex finding out that her sister reads her diary
• Hayley finally getting to make out with Kyle
• The hickey on her neck and Hayley’s delight: “This? This is a hickey?”
• Alex’s dominatrix outfit — where did she get that? Did Hayley have that in her closet all this time?
• Hayley’s photo expressions
• The lunch table dance
• Hayley seems to have gotten a lot better at driving in a couple of days
• These are the worst parents ever
• The repeated vandalism of the principal’s door — and the giant metal door replacement
• PLOT TWIST!
• Kind of digging this band performance
• There is so much making out in this movie
• Aww Alex gives Hayley her crown