‘I wish I had more time to seek out the dark forces and join their hellish crusade…’
Just yesterday I pondered how much better The Addams Family would be if the plot were more interesting. Well, I didn’t have to wait long for an answer. Addams Family Values arrived two years after its predecessor with a new writer on board in Paul Rudnick and the result is that rarest of beasts: a sequel that far outshines the source material…
The whole gang returns from the first movie with added Joan Cusack for good measure. The world is still after Uncle Fester’s considerable fortune with serial husband killer Debbie Jellinsky the latest chancer to attempt to find wealth through the Addams Family. Her plan is to pose as a nanny to Wednesday (Christina Ricci) and Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) before quickly sending them off to a summer camp (much to their chagrin) in order to steal Fester’s loot.
This film is one of the rare examples of when every creative decision is the right one. Gomez (Raul Julia) and Morticia (Anjelica Huston) are sidelined somewhat but this allows Debbie and Wednesday to take centre stage in their respective storylines and this creates the illusion of two excellent but disparate films operating at the same time. The first is a black comedy about a woman trying to murder her husband. The second is a YA tale of a group of outsiders trying to survive summer camp. The fact that these two different storylines dovetail so wonderfully in the film’s conclusion is a testament to director Barry Sonnenfield who paces the film perfectly and also to Rudnick’s excellent screenplay. Wednesday is a fun character in the first movie but it is here where she becomes an icon and Debbie is probably the best character in the entire franchise. It’s a sensational turn from Cusack who surely would have been rewarded with some kind of Academy recognition if not for this kind of film being anathema for award ceremonies,
Addams Family Values is funnier, more intelligent and just flat-out more enjoyable than the film that came before it – one of the best family films of the ’90s.
