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#683 - The Addams Family
Barry Sonnenfeld, 1991
An extremely weird and eccentric family is targeted by a con artist who plans to get her hands on their wealth by passing off her son as the family's long-lost uncle.
Until recently, I somehow managed to avoid watching either film based on 1960s sitcom The Addams Family, a collection of bizarre horror-trope individuals whose ostensible weirdness served as a comically subversive counter-point to other sitcom families of the era. As such, it proved relatively easy to update to the early-1990s, especially in the hands of cinematographer-turned-director Barry Sonnenfeld, who was previously best-known for his multiple collaborations with the Coen brothers and has since gone on to direct the Men in Black movies. The plot focuses on the family's suave patriarch Gomez (Raul Julia) as he continues his decades-long search for his long-lost brother, Fester. At the same time, the family's attorney (Dan Hedaya) ends up in trouble with a mother-and-son pair of crooks. When it turns out that the son (Christopher Lloyd) bears an uncanny resemblance to Fester, all three of them hatch a plan to have the son impersonate Fester so as to acquire the Addams family's considerable wealth and assets. To this end, there is just enough plot to justify spending about 90 minutes or so watching this kooky family go about their business.
At this point in time, there's not much that really needs to be said about The Addams Family. The premise may be built on a pretty simple joke - that this family is not only nonchalant about their outwardly nightmarish existence but also fundamentally well-rounded compared to so-called "normal" folks - but it's decent enough to buoy a simple family comedy. The cast assembles a collection of good actors to embody these outlandish actors - Julia appropriately chews all the scenery as the theatrical Gomez and (perhaps more importantly) has good chemistry with Angelica Huston as his vampire-like spouse Morticia. Consummate oddball actor Lloyd makes for an appropriately weird presence as his impostor must try to fit in with the ultimate family of misfits, while Christina Ricci and Jimmy Workman also do well as the family's homicidal children. The over-the-top nature of the film is reflected in the flamboyant score and rapid-fire camerawork that works to capture some fairly solid production design. Though The Addams Family is not without its charm, it does have a bit of trouble being consistently amusing. It gets the odd laugh here and there and the performers do good jobs, but for a film that's supposed to be fairly lightweight (when it's not laying some extremely black yet family-friendly humour, of course) it doesn't quite seem to work on that level.
Barry Sonnenfeld, 1991
An extremely weird and eccentric family is targeted by a con artist who plans to get her hands on their wealth by passing off her son as the family's long-lost uncle.
Until recently, I somehow managed to avoid watching either film based on 1960s sitcom The Addams Family, a collection of bizarre horror-trope individuals whose ostensible weirdness served as a comically subversive counter-point to other sitcom families of the era. As such, it proved relatively easy to update to the early-1990s, especially in the hands of cinematographer-turned-director Barry Sonnenfeld, who was previously best-known for his multiple collaborations with the Coen brothers and has since gone on to direct the Men in Black movies. The plot focuses on the family's suave patriarch Gomez (Raul Julia) as he continues his decades-long search for his long-lost brother, Fester. At the same time, the family's attorney (Dan Hedaya) ends up in trouble with a mother-and-son pair of crooks. When it turns out that the son (Christopher Lloyd) bears an uncanny resemblance to Fester, all three of them hatch a plan to have the son impersonate Fester so as to acquire the Addams family's considerable wealth and assets. To this end, there is just enough plot to justify spending about 90 minutes or so watching this kooky family go about their business.
At this point in time, there's not much that really needs to be said about The Addams Family. The premise may be built on a pretty simple joke - that this family is not only nonchalant about their outwardly nightmarish existence but also fundamentally well-rounded compared to so-called "normal" folks - but it's decent enough to buoy a simple family comedy. The cast assembles a collection of good actors to embody these outlandish actors - Julia appropriately chews all the scenery as the theatrical Gomez and (perhaps more importantly) has good chemistry with Angelica Huston as his vampire-like spouse Morticia. Consummate oddball actor Lloyd makes for an appropriately weird presence as his impostor must try to fit in with the ultimate family of misfits, while Christina Ricci and Jimmy Workman also do well as the family's homicidal children. The over-the-top nature of the film is reflected in the flamboyant score and rapid-fire camerawork that works to capture some fairly solid production design. Though The Addams Family is not without its charm, it does have a bit of trouble being consistently amusing. It gets the odd laugh here and there and the performers do good jobs, but for a film that's supposed to be fairly lightweight (when it's not laying some extremely black yet family-friendly humour, of course) it doesn't quite seem to work on that level.