THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIE
A film review by Jon A. Webb
Copyright 1995 Jon A. Webb
THE BRADY BUNCH operates, fairly successfully, on three levels: as a parody of the original, as a nostalgic look back at it, and as a re-creation. My seven-year old daughter had no problem accepting it as a feature length version of the sitcom, since all the in-jokes went right over her head. Teenagers and older people in the audience caught the many jokes about homosexuality, transvestites, crime, etc. as well as the somewhat more adept jokes about quirks in the original characterizations, e.g., Jan's odd way of flinging her ponytail back and forth, Marcia's obsession with combing her hair, the father's lectures, etc.; and everyone who longed for the original show had fun seeing cameos by the original actors, seeing Marcia's 70s perfection re-created, etc.
The premise of the movie is to take the Brady Bunch and transplant them intact into the 90s, with them still holding the same values, using the same language, wearing the same style clothing, etc. They are of course assaulted by the greed and crime endemic in this era, but manage to overcome it in true Brady fashion, by sticking together and displaying that Brady spirit. The film carefully adheres to the one-dimensional production values of the original.
I liked the young actress portraying Jan Brady, who had the only role with any dramatic conflict. She has the mannerisms (at least as I've seen them parodied elsewhere--I can't remember them from the show, not being much of a fan) down well, and also brings a kind of additional, much welcome oddness to her interaction with her interior monologue.
You should only go to see this film as a harmless afternoon's entertainment for children, or if you were or are a fan of the original. The in-jokes are exactly the sort you probably have already come up with if you watch the show. I won't spoil the fun by mentioning any of them, though this leaves little else to review.
The biggest success in this film is its not quite over the top parody of the Bradys. I got the impression that I was watching a movie any Brady-watching college sophomore could have contributed a joke or two to, but somehow the film almost never broke down into complete silliness, as these films often do. Well, not quite--there's one scene where the bad guy explicitly brings forth all the odd things about the Bradys--but at least the Bradys aren't around then, to hear their lifestyle impugned.
There is some superficial commentary on late 60s/early 70s pseudo-pop culture. The Monkees play a fairly prominent role, and there is a clever very brief reference to the Partridge Family. The segue into the title sequence is also cute.
For a feature-length recreation of a superficial, artistically weightless sitcom, this film is remarkably successful.
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