Saturday, 25 January 2025

Movie Review: The Addams Family (1991)


Genre: Comedy  
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld  
Starring: Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd, Christina Ricci, Dan Hedaya  
Running Time: 99 minutes  

Synopsis: Macabre couple Gomez and Morticia Addams (Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston) live in a gothic mansion, where their children Wednesday (Christina Ricci) and Pugsley are always up to no good. Gomez misses his long-estranged brother Fester, a sadness that is exploited by cash-strapped lawyer Tully (Dan Hedaya) and his loan shark client Abigail (Elizabeth Wilson). They attempt to pass off Abigail's son Gordon (Christopher Lloyd) as Fester, in order to uncover the location of the Addams treasure.

What Works Well: A perfectly-cast cartoon adaptation, the adventures of the Addams family benefit from an unwavering weird-is-good ethos and a perfectly conceived dark visual theme of cobwebs, graves, and secret chambers. Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston play up the bizarre but unmistakable passion between Gomez and Morticia, while young Christina Ricci steals every scene she's in, always attempting to inflict a new version of harm on her eager brother, both of them earning mom's admiration in the process. Elsewhere Christopher Lloyd projects startling mime-like emotions from under layers of make-up, while the disembodied hand Thing somehow conveys personality and adds frantic comic relief. First time director Barry Sonnenfeld sustains a wicked brand of humour across the episodic quirkiness.

What Does Not Work As Well: The plot is no more than a flimsy excuse to justify the aesthetics, mood, quips, pranks, and set-pieces. 

Key Quote:
Morticia: Don't torture yourself, Gomez. That's my job.



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