Suffice it to say that this movie is well worth your time.īarry Sonnenfeld (Get Shorty) takes a zany script written by Paul Rudnick (Jeffrey, In and Out) and directs with an exhilarating rhythm to tell the tale of Uncle Fester's marriage to a suspicious young nanny (Joan Cusack) and its effect on the Addams family.Īll the actors are absolutely wonderful but Cusack steals the movie with a gleefully nasty turn as the murderous Debbie. I could go on and on, but I'm running out of superlatives. That dance number! Morticia's ever-present shaft of light! Christina Ricci as the sublime Wednesday! Joan Cusack, unhinged! A split-second cameo by Charles Busch! Oh, rapture. Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston are particularly marvelous as one of the most genuinely loving, passionate couples you've seen in ages.

Paul Rudnick's screenplay is masterful-you'll be quoting from it for weeks.

Instead, the characters get more of a chance to develop as they glide blithely through a fuller, more cohesive story. Because we all know who we're dealing with by now, we don't have to spend nearly so much time introducing the family and their skewed universe. And then there was the totally shameless product placement.but I digress.Īddams Family Values, on the other hand, gets to be more playful. In the end, one left the theater feeling that the movie had been 'about' the old sight gags. As a result, the plot felt forced, as if it had been the best way the writers could think of to showcase all the source material.

The first had to spend much of its time introducing the Family-and, just as importantly, paying (totally justified) homage to Charles Addams' brilliant cartoons and to the old television series. Paul Rudnick clearly had a field day writing this screenplay.Īs odd as it may seem, this sequel is in many ways superior to its predecessor.

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