The Addams Family review.
A perfectly cast movie can go a long way. The Addams Family weathers an abrupt opening and a rough ending to deliver a steady stream of its unique brand of entertaining in between. It’s a true credit to the performances that it does so with a paper-thin plot.
Classic movie reviews will contain spoilers.
The Addams Family
Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld
Written by Caroline Thompson and Larry Wilson
Starring Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd and Christina Ricci
The Addams Family Review
The Addams Family gets off to a rocky start. It doesn’t take the time to introduce the characters or bring you into the world in any kind of meaningful way. We immediately learn that Gomez’s (Raul Julia) brother Fester (Christopher Lloyd) disappeared decades ago. The next scene we meet a character who looks exactly like Fester who is going to scheme his way into the family to lay claim to the vast Addams’ treasure.
That all happens right away in The Addams Family. It seems to assume that everyone is familiar with this family from 1960’s television. It’s a true credit to how great the performances are that this movie works anyway.
There’s no more plot to The Addams Family than the imposter Fester trying to steal a treasure. The film is carried by the chemistry between Gomez and Morticia (Anjelica Huston), as well as a breakout performance by Christina Ricci as Wednesday.
There really isn’t even more than one joke type in The Addams Family. The family loves things that are dark and painful. Somehow the cast makes the same punchline pop every single time. Julia and Huston are incredibly talented actors. They may have never been better cast than this. They so embody the character of Gomez and Morticia that they make the world feel fully lived in.
Wednesday’s character gets the funniest lines in The Addams Family. Ricci’s deadpanning of pitch-black comedy is pure joy. She spends the movie torturing her brother Pugsley and doubting the legitimacy of Fester’s claim. She is the wise beyond her years character who can see through things because she doesn’t have the wide-eyed optimistic brotherly wish for his brother’s return that Julia brings to Gomez.
Of course, fake Fester turns out to be actual Fester in the end. He had amnesia. That’s what we learn in a clearly tacked on ending scene anyway. They had pretty much written themselves into a corner here. Fester must be the impetus for the thin plot so they can’t reveal that he isn’t an imposter until after the climax. But they also can’t leave the movie without giving the family Fester back.
It gets away with a lot by not letting Fester know that he is the real Fester. Watching him fall in love with the oddball family as an outsider provides the heart of the movie. It comes to a point where he chooses the family he doesn’t think is his over the one that he believes is. That’s a moving statement on what The Addams Family is. A creepy, cooky clan that cares about each other above all else. Lloyd is terrific as the wide-eyed tormented Fester.
There isn’t much to the movie outside of this. The best sequences come when the family is driven from their home and must live in the real world. It’s briefer than you’d hope but Julia is great as the now devastated Gomez. Julia is in top form throughout but his take on a Gomez who has been betrayed and become lost is hilarious.
Director Barry Sonnenfeld gives the movie a great aesthetic. It’s definitely Tim Burton light (which makes his show running the upcoming Wednesday series kind of perfect), but that beats Tim Burton heavy every day of the week.
Thankfully, The Addams Family was a giant hit at the box office and we got a sterling sequel two years later. We’ll cover that one tomorrow…but it corrects the problems that this movie is weighed down by. It has the benefit of this movie serving as the introduction to the characters and has a more filled out plot and a better ending.
That’s not to say that The Addams Family isn’t worth watching…it is a unique and largely entertaining film. Treating it as an introduction to the superior sequel will do you a lot of good. But you’ll find plenty to love in these performances.
Scare Value
From this The Addams Family review you’ve probably figured out that it could have been so much more with a better story. It skips character introductions in favor of jumping straight into madness. Not everything works, mostly the clearly tacked on ending, but you won’t care. Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd and Christina Ricci are so pitch perfect in this movie that you can’t help but enjoy yourself. They’d get another crack at it two years later in the better Addams Family Values.
3/5
