The Addams FamilyThey're creepy and they're kooky. Mysterious and spooky. They're all together ooky. Well, you know the rest. The Addams Family is adapted from the 1960s television series of the same name, which was in turn adapted from a series of cartoons by acclaimed illustrator Charles Addams. In the film, the eponymous Addams family is visited by the long-lost Fester Addams (Christopher Lloyd), reputed to have been lost for twenty-five years in the Bermuda Triangle. But Fester conceals a secret: he is actually a conman in cahoots to steal away the hidden wealth of the Addams family by ingratiating himself in to their "good graces".
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The Addams Family is a sharp and sly dark comedy, where much of the humor comes from the macabre interests of the household. Like the television show, they are oddballs and speak with bliss about twisted and bizarre subject matter. However, they are not strictly "evil", and are in fact a strong and capable family. Gomez Addams (Raul Julia) is a mustachioed and enthusiastic patriarch, who enjoys firing golf balls from his roof and into his neighbor's cereal from afar, engaging in an impromptu fencing match with his devious and financially strapped lawyer, Tully (Dan Hedaya). The heart of the family is the vampish Morticia (Anjelica Huston), who speaks with an eerie evenness and relishes in cultivating the sinister antics of her children, the morose Wednesday (Christina Ricci) and the impish Pugsley (Jimmy Workman). But as close as the Addams family is, every year they conduct a seance to attempt to contact the missing Fester, a point which Tully observes when he is accosted by a pair of loan sharks, led by the icy Abigail Craven (Elizabeth Wilson), and her brutish son. Gordon's resemblance to Fester is so uncanny that the cagey Tully sets up a complex con to snake away the Addams fortune from within by having Gordon pose as the estranged sibling. And although Gordon/Fester looks the part and is taken in by the unsuspecting Addams family, his ruse begins to unravel when key memories and intimate details of Fester's past elude the impostor, until Abigail is forced to adopt a persona of her own as a hack psychiatrist to reinforce the subterfuge. What ultimately surprises Fester more than anything is that, while Gordon had a decided cruel streak and was quick to violence, as Fester, he becomes more at ease in the creepy household, even going so far as to help the kids make their dramatic presentation for the school play more...visceral. Ironically, while mother Abigail browbeats and manipulates her "son" into satisfying her interest in the Addams' secret vault, Fester's quest is a more psychological one, an awakening into discovering who he is and where he belongs, and who his family truly is.
The members of the Addams family are each a collection of unusual idiosyncrasies, leading to rapid fire scenes replete with bizarre sight gags and delightfully grim puns, such as when Morticia searches for something to donate for a charity auction, and comes across body bags for Uncle Knick-Knack's wardrobe, or Gomez's comically literal literature in his library. For a long time, I was convinced that The Addams Family was a Tim Burton movie; it is not. It is actually directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, although there are some similarities to Burton's oeuvre, largely due to the combination of exaggerated gothic protagonists portrayed in an altogether sympathetic light, contrasted against the so-called "normal" society, comprised of vapid and dull people. One of the best examples of this is the scene where the Addams family goes to attend the kids' stage production, preceded by a boring (and all too common) performance by the other kids in school of "Getting to Know You", which puts most of the audience attending on the verge of passing out. When Wednesday's and Pugsley's show turns into a bloodspray extravaganza, the audience is left in stunned silence, but no doubt they had a more thrilling time. When Fester claims that he must finally leave, the family hosts a party to celebrate, inviting various members of the extended clan, and Gomez and Fester perform the dangerous dance of death: the "Mamushka", which translates roughly from Russian as "little mother", suggesting a nod to the television series and Morticia's tendency to refer to Gomez as "bubbeleh". The dance is enthusiastic, a familial bonding experience, and also involves juggling sharp knives and sword swallowing. It is a high point in The Addams Family, and is as much fun for Fester as it is for the audience. Compare that with Gordon's obsessive mother, opportunistic and controlling--their interactions are dull in comparison, eating chicken soup in a bleak dining hall together while trying to discover the secret entrance into the vault. The contrast makes it clear who the real lunatics are...well, maybe not, but at least the Addams family has a lot more fun at it, and are, dare I say, good people. When the family is cast out from their home, each of them chips in to try to keep afloat; even the disembodied hand called "Thing" (performed by Christopher Hart)...ahem, lends a hand. So The Addams Family is a story about family and what exemplifies the best qualities versus that of Abigail and her ilk.
Recommended for: Fans of a strange and funny dark comedy about the most unusual family, where it is as though it were Halloween every day, and one where the heart of the family is strong...and probably other organs, too.
The members of the Addams family are each a collection of unusual idiosyncrasies, leading to rapid fire scenes replete with bizarre sight gags and delightfully grim puns, such as when Morticia searches for something to donate for a charity auction, and comes across body bags for Uncle Knick-Knack's wardrobe, or Gomez's comically literal literature in his library. For a long time, I was convinced that The Addams Family was a Tim Burton movie; it is not. It is actually directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, although there are some similarities to Burton's oeuvre, largely due to the combination of exaggerated gothic protagonists portrayed in an altogether sympathetic light, contrasted against the so-called "normal" society, comprised of vapid and dull people. One of the best examples of this is the scene where the Addams family goes to attend the kids' stage production, preceded by a boring (and all too common) performance by the other kids in school of "Getting to Know You", which puts most of the audience attending on the verge of passing out. When Wednesday's and Pugsley's show turns into a bloodspray extravaganza, the audience is left in stunned silence, but no doubt they had a more thrilling time. When Fester claims that he must finally leave, the family hosts a party to celebrate, inviting various members of the extended clan, and Gomez and Fester perform the dangerous dance of death: the "Mamushka", which translates roughly from Russian as "little mother", suggesting a nod to the television series and Morticia's tendency to refer to Gomez as "bubbeleh". The dance is enthusiastic, a familial bonding experience, and also involves juggling sharp knives and sword swallowing. It is a high point in The Addams Family, and is as much fun for Fester as it is for the audience. Compare that with Gordon's obsessive mother, opportunistic and controlling--their interactions are dull in comparison, eating chicken soup in a bleak dining hall together while trying to discover the secret entrance into the vault. The contrast makes it clear who the real lunatics are...well, maybe not, but at least the Addams family has a lot more fun at it, and are, dare I say, good people. When the family is cast out from their home, each of them chips in to try to keep afloat; even the disembodied hand called "Thing" (performed by Christopher Hart)...ahem, lends a hand. So The Addams Family is a story about family and what exemplifies the best qualities versus that of Abigail and her ilk.
Recommended for: Fans of a strange and funny dark comedy about the most unusual family, where it is as though it were Halloween every day, and one where the heart of the family is strong...and probably other organs, too.