The Addams Family (1991) Paramount/Comedy-Horror RT: 99 minutes Rated PG-13 (macabre and suggestive humor, some violence, mild language) Director: Barry Sonnenfeld Screenplay: Caroline Thompson and Larry Wilson Music: Marc Shaiman Cinematography: Owen Roizman Release date: November 22, 1991 (US) Cast: Angelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd, Dan Hedaya, Elizabeth Wilson, Judith Malina, Carel Struycken, Christina Ricci, Jimmy Workman, Dana Ivey, Paul Benedict, Christopher Hart, John Franklin. Box Office: $113.5M (US)/$191.5M (World)
Rating: ***
They’re creepy and they’re kooky, mysterious and spooky. They’re altogether ooky. They’re The Addams Family. They’ve made the jump from TV screen to big screen with decidedly mixed results. Much of it is funny. It has some good sight gags and one-liners. The best scenes are self-contained moments like Wednesday Addams (Ricci, Casper) asking a Girl Scout if her cookies are made from real Girl Scouts. In this respect, the movie bears closer resemblance to Charles Addams’ single-panel cartoons that appeared in The New Yorker than the cult 60s TV show. Unfortunately, the movie doesn’t come together as well as one would hope.
The problem with The Addams Family is the plot. I’m not even sure it can be called that it’s so slim. Its sole purpose is to tie together the funny scenes. If it was a clothesline, it would barely hold a light load of laundry. Here’s the story in a nutshell. Some bad people want to get at the Addams’ fortune. They hire a lookalike (Lloyd, Back to the Future) to impersonate long-lost Uncle Fester in order to gain access to the vault. Once there, he starts to feel like one of the family. The masterminds behind the scheme are the Addams’ lawyer (Hedaya, Running Scared) and a loan shark (Wilson, 9 to 5) he owes money to. That’s it. You’d think with all the possibilities presented by the material, the writers could have come up with something better. It doesn’t completely sink The Addams Family; it just causes it to occasionally gasp for air.
I’m willing to forgive the lackluster script because The Addams Family succeeds in other ways. The inspired casting is definitely at the top of the list. The actors chosen to play the familiar characters are dead-on perfect. Raul Julia (Kiss of the Spider Woman) and Angelica Huston (Prizzi’s Honor) play amorous heads of family Gomez and Morticia. They love each other deeply and express it as only an Addams can. Their words of love include statements like “Don’t torture yourself, Gomez. That’s my job.” and “I would die for her. I would kill for her. Either way, what bliss.” Ricci just about steals the show as daughter Wednesday with her deadpan line readings. One of my favorite bits is when somebody asks her about her Halloween costume (or seeming lack thereof). Her reply, “I’m a homicidal maniac, they look just like everyone else.” Rounding out the cast is Judith Malina (Awakenings) as Granny Addams, Caleb Struycken (The Witches of Eastwick) as Lurch the butler and newcomer Jimmy Workman as son Pugsley, the target of his older sister’s homicidal urges. In a departure from the series, Lurch never once says “You rang?” He grunts to show approval or displeasure.
You notice I haven’t said a word about Lloyd. I thought I should address his role in The Addams Family separately. SPOILER ALERT! From the start, it’s a given that the real Uncle Fester will return by movie’s end. It should be a major plot development. Instead, it’s handled as an afterthought. The writers could have explained his absence a few different ways. Instead, they go with that oldest and laziest of plot devices, amnesia. I think we all know where I’m going with this, so I’ll say no more about it. I would like to commend Lloyd on yet another memorable performance. He’s a gifted character actor who brings an eccentric sensibility to each role he plays. This quality makes him the ideal choice to step into the role made famous by Jackie Coogan.
Barry Sonnenfeld, a talented cinematographer whose credits include Blood Simple, Raising Arizona and Three O’Clock High, makes his directorial debut with The Addams Family. His distinctive visual style is on display in several scenes like the one in which Gomez and Fester venture into the booby-trapped family vault via a labyrinthine route that includes sliding boards and a gondola river crossing. The special effects involving disembodied hand Thing (magician Hart), a combination live-action and animatronics, are particularly impressive. He no longer emerges from a box; he’s all over the place, running and scurrying about. He has a great bit as a Fed Ex worker delivering packages in an office. The sets are equally great. The Addams’ mansion is more than a museum (when people come to see ‘em); it’s a funhouse of horrors. Aesthetically, The Addams Family is brilliant.
Of all the funny scenes in The Addams Family, the funniest is easily the kids’ school pageant where they perform a scene from Shakespeare involving swordplay and gallons of fake blood showering the horrified parents in the audience. Of course, they get a standing ovation from their family. I laughed often during The Addams Family; I appreciate its dark, morbid sense of humor and oddball cast of characters. It’s too bad Sonnenfeld gave the sparse plot a pass. It could have been great, a classic even. As it stands, it’s an enjoyable movie that doesn’t insult the memory of the TV show from which it’s adapted. The makers get enough right to make it painless which I’m sure is disappointing to Gomez.
