A Very Brady Sequel

(Arlene Sanford, USA, 1996)

How far can anyone stretch a one-joke "high concept"? When The Brady Bunch Movie (1995) was released, I ended my review by musing: "I hope its makers don't spoil the neatness of the joke by plunging too soon into the production of a sequel." Well, here is A Very Brady Sequel. Although it adds little to the previous spoof, it manages to be infectiously entertaining.

The mix of satirical elements is slightly different this time around. Almost entirely gone is the contrast between the Bradys, stuck in a kitsch '70s time capsule, and the harsh, dysfunctional milieu of the '90s. There is also less slavish attention to minute details of episodes from the original television series.

The Bradys are, of course, still preoccupied with all the fabulous trivia of their suburban lifestyle. And the same domestic rituals, sibling rivalries and petty adolescent torments are still on display. Into this absurdly lightweight world, A Very Brady Sequel introduces two disturbing notes.

The first disturbance is the arrival of Roy (Tim Matheson). He claims to be the long-lost husband of Carol Brady (Shelley Long), but we know he is an impostor on the trail of an ancient archaeological artifact that happens to have found its way into this household. Although the film stops short of exploring any frisson between Carol and Roy, it does milk a lot of laughs from the children's instant attachment to him as a perfect father over Mike (Gary Cole).

The second, rather more thrilling development, is the birth of a quasi-incestuous attraction between the eldest kids, Greg (Christopher Daniel Barnes) and Marcia (Christine Taylor), the moment they have to share a bedroom. After all, they reason, if there is a new father around, why not consummate this desire?

In its breezy intimation of the forces threatening to blow apart a nuclear family amid a decor of lurid, pastel-coloured kitsch, A Very Brady Sequel takes us back (knowingly?) to the era of such nervous comedies as Vincente Minnelli's The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963). With one big difference: in those days, the subtext was a secret possibly even to the director, but today it is the proud basis for one long, loud, camp joke.

© Adrian Martin January 1997