Joyful Gilmore 2 Director Defends Virginia’s Surprising Demise Scene [Exclusive]

Beware, there are main spoilers for “Joyful Gilmore” 2 on this article.

“Joyful Gilmore 2” is out now on Netflix, and throughout the first couple of minutes of beginning the sports activities comedy sequel starring Adam Sandler, you will have discovered your self selecting your jaw up from the bottom after a devastating, surprising twist that no person noticed coming. Properly, a few of us noticed it coming, however we actually did not see it occurring in such a darkish, distasteful style.

Within the film’s opening sequence, we make amends for what’s been occurring with Joyful Gilmore because the finish of the primary film, which incorporates profitable a number of tour championships, marrying Virginia Venit (Julie Bowen) and having 5 children (4 obnoxious sons and one quiet daughter). 

Sadly, that additionally consists of studying that Joyful unintentionally killed Virginia with one among his lengthy golf drives. Sure, Virginia Venit is killed by a golf ball hit by her loving husband.

That is what sends Joyful right into a melancholy spiral that causes him to lose Grandma’s home (the one which he fought so arduous for within the unique film) and all of the winnings he earned over time as an expert golfer. It forces him to maneuver right into a rundown home along with his teenage daughter, the place he spends most of his days consuming liquor from stealth flasks wherever he can cover them, akin to a cucumber on the grocery retailer he works at or the cuckoo clock on the wall of his home. 

Whereas fridging feminine characters to spark a brand new story arc for the first male character has been a typical trope in a wide range of films for a very long time now, there’s one thing about having Joyful be the one who kills Virginia a lot worse. So we puzzled if there was each any concern about how that sequence would play with audiences when the film arrived, and we requested director Kyle Newacheck (“Homicide Thriller”) about this surprising flip of occasions. 

Main as much as the discharge of “Joyful Gilmore 2,” we spoke with director Kyle Newacheck in an interview that can quickly be launched in full on an episode of the /Movie Weekly Podcast. Throughout our chat, I requested whether or not there was ever any concern about bouncing again from such a darkish, dramatic twist. The filmmaker mentioned:

“Yeah, I assume there is a concern. There’s at all times a priority whenever you’re taking part in with that kind of darkness. However I do not know, I used to be by no means actually involved, as a result of it’s the driving power [of the film]. Should you pull that out, then what do you’ve? You do not have something actual. However yeah, after I first learn the screenplay, that is like web page 5, and I used to be glued when that occurred. So I knew what that feeling felt like, and I knew that folks may recover from it. You will get over it.”

The truth is, Newacheck thinks it suits according to a second from the unique film. He continued:

“It isn’t far-off from the material of the world, as a result of within the first one, his father dies. That is tragic. His mom strikes to Egypt, after which his father dies, and he strikes in with Grandma. So there’s darkness within the first one. There’s actual darkish humor. So I simply felt it [was] becoming.”

Sure, within the unique film, Joyful’s father is instantly killed within the opening title sequence when he is hit by a hockey puck throughout a sport they attended collectively when Joyful was only a little one. Whereas I assumed that was the second that made writers Adam Sandler and Tim Herlihy suppose killing off Virginia in such a style would not be arduous to recover from, I am shocked that they do not see how that is an escalation that simply would not land with the identical irreverent darkish humorousness. Much more irritating is {that a} slight change within the script may have made it a minimum of considerably extra palatable.

What actually makes Virginia’s demise really feel extra bitter than it in any other case may need is having Joyful be the one who kills her. That is approach darker than a median accident, and it did not actually have to be that approach.

Let’s not neglect that there is already a rivalry between longtime golfer Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald) and the rebellious Joyful Gilmore. In “Joyful Gilmore 2,” Shooter has been in an establishment for many years, after his lack of the tour championship despatched him right into a psychological breakdown. It might have been straightforward to make that rivalry much more deep by having Shooter be the one who unintentionally kills Virginia. 

Having that demise on Shooter’s aware may have been the factor that despatched him to the establishment. When he is launched, slightly than having Shooter and Joyful have a fast graveyard brawl earlier than making up as buddies, the film may have had Joyful reluctant to forgive Shooter, and his anger may have hindered his efficiency on the course, making it arduous for him to earn the cash to ship his daughter to ballet faculty. Joyful would wish to forgive Shooter to be able to correctly mourn his spouse, and that emotional maturity is what would enable Joyful be good at golf once more. Think about how touching it could be if Joyful realized his “completely happy place” might by no means be as completely happy because it as soon as was, however he nonetheless discovered a technique to get by means of life.

However in fact, the plot of the film, involving the insane Maxi League squaring off in opposition to the Skilled Golfers Tour, requires Joyful and Shooter to workforce up a lot sooner, making the lengthening of any reconciliation harder to play out. If the film would have stayed as grounded as the unique and executed away with all of the silly bells and whistles of the Maxi League, we would have had a good “Joyful Gilmore” sequel. As an alternative, it is caught within the tough.