Review of The Addams Family

The Addams Family has the Addams family debt laden almost bankrupt lawyer Tully Alford (Dan Hedaya) & his wife Margaret (Dana Ivey) being invited to an annual séance held by the Addams family to remember Gomez Addams (Raul Julia) Brother, Fester who mysteriously disappeared 25 years ago. Back at his office Alford is threatened by loan shark Abigail Craven (Elizabeth Wilson) & her brute of a son Gordon (Christopher Lloyd) who want their money. Alford says he has no money but knows where there is a vault full of treasure & that her son Gordon looks exactly like Fester who disappeared 25 years ago & that with his help they can rob the Addams family of all their money. Later that night at the séance Gomez his wife Morticia (Anjelica Huston), Grandma (Judith Malina) & the two children Wednesday (Christina Ricci) & Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) are all astounded & delighted when Fester suddenly & rather unexpectedly turns up having supposedly been trapped in the Bermuda Triangle... Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld I thought The Addams Family was a fine film that provides solid entertainment but at the same time is maybe a little simplistic & not quite funny enough. The Addams Family first appeared as a series of cartoons by Charles Addams in 1935, then the character's were given their own TV series The Addams Family (1964 - 1966) which ran for 64 episodes, then Hanna-Barbera turned the concept into a short-lived cartoon series that ran for 16 episodes in 1973 & there was one spin-off TV special called Halloween with the Addams Family (1977) with most of the original cast which then brings us to this big budget film version. The script by Caroline Thompson & Larry Wilson with Paul Rudnick doing the rewrites moves along at a nice pace & isn't demanding, it has the sort of macabre black humour you would expect & is good fun. I have to admit that I personally didn't really laugh at any point, I certainly smiled & found it amusing but there weren't any big laugh-out-loud moments for me & anyone who doesn't guess the 'surprise' ending within the first ten minutes is either dead or just plain stupid. All the Addams Family character's are there including Lurch (Carel Struycken) the ridiculously tall butler & Thing the dismembered hand. The cast help the film enormously, Julia as Gomez is perfect as is Huston as Morticia while a young Christinia Ricci is very effective as Wednesday. With a supposed budget of $38,000,000 back in '91 The Addams Family is technically a very good looking & polished film with the Addamses' Gothic mansion standing out & almost being a character in it's own right. The special effects vary as one would expect from a film from '91, the special effects on Thing are surprisingly good while the wind & electricity effects at the end are awful by todays standards. The recognisable Addams Family theme tune is only used during the opening credits. Director Sonnenfeld keeps things moving with plenty of visual gags & slapstick comedy, although I felt the sequence where Wednesday cuts Pugsley's arm off in a school play & in return he slits her throat with fountains of spurting blood spraying from the wounds was somewhat disturbing & felt out of place as in the context of the film I think they did it for 'real'. I liked it, I'm not sure I would want to watch it again anytime soon. Definitetly worth a watch especially as you can probably find it cheap these days or catch it on TV for free, like I did in fact!