Addams Family
One can only speculate as to what constituted the full on âfamily friendlyâ appeal of The Addams Family Franchise, in essence a ghoulish, offbeat clan first created in a comic strip by its namesake author Charles Addams whose very lifeblood in existing was by living in a gothic, contrarian vein where things that âstraightâ, ânormalâ society would find hideous or bizarre they would find beautiful, albeit through the use of witty one liners and wisecracks that were intended to be taken as being comedic. This led up to the running of the famous TV sitcom from The 1960s with John Astin as a lunatic, sex crazed, sword swallowing Gomez Addams (and considering that Astin is said to be the worldâs leading scholar on the writings of the equally dark Edgar Allen Poe made him an appropriate casting choice) and Carolyn Jones much more sublime as his Morticia along with Jackie Coogan playing Uncle Fester as a twisted imitation of Curly Howard, establishing everything pretty much as most people saw the franchise. When the movie adaptation was done in 1991, then first time director Barry Sonnenfeld took some obvious choices on the casting and some not so obvious choices: Anjelica Huston was the only realistic choice for Morticia in more ways than one (although Cher unsuccessfully lobbied for the role), not only bearing a striking resemblance to the original TV actress when fully made up, but also more than capable of living up to the challenge in playing a female lead who always keeps her cool and never gets flustered or upset about anything. In the role of Gomez (originally portrayed in the comic strip as being a sleazy, sluglike little man which Astin embodied quite well) we would get Raul Julia, a great actor finally promoted to the A list here by starring in his first major franchise film (before tragically dying from a sudden stroke a few years later) and playing Gomez as a romantic leading man / Latin lover type pretty much for real with actual charisma whereas Astin played him as somebody who merely THOUGHT of himself as being a lusty romantic with Morticia as his biggest (and only) fan which worked out well for bizarre comedic effect. Julia more than makes up for that difference by successfully playing Gomez as otherwise being a complete buffoon, somebody who lives in his own little world within his forboding mansion with little to no idea of how the outside world works, a setup that leads to a satisfying payoff later on when he and The Family are forced to fend for themselves in the outside world in the filmâs single best part. But first, letâs get to the story itself: After a funny enough opening where the iconic theme song is used, we learn that Gomez has long been pining for the return of his brother Fester, unheard from in 25 years since getting lost in The Bermuda Triangle. While paying for the familyâs âmonthly expensesâ with their duplicitous lawyer (Dan Hedaya, a rather lame comedic bad guy except for his familiarity with the eccentricities of The Addamses while still being a ânormalâ person himself) Gomez invites the man to attend their annual sĂ©ance in order to summon Festerâs spirit, but as it turns out, Hedaya quickly recognizes that the brutish son (Christopher Lloyd) of a woman whom he owes money to (Elizabeth Wilson) is the spitting image of the long thought dead Fester, so the trio launch a plan to have Lloyd show up during the sĂ©ance pretending to be Fester, gain Gomezâs trust and then use him to find out the secret passageway to the giant vault where the untold wealth of The Family actually resides, intending to rip them off for all that they are worth. Here is where the story hits its major, backbreaking snag as Lloyd was advertised in the promotions for this movie as playing Fester when in actuality he is playing the impersonating son, Gordon. The original script even intended to leave it ambiguous in the end as to whether or not he was really Fester, which led to co star Christina Ricci (on behalf of the cast) going directly to Sonnenfeld and asking him to write in a twist stating that in the end the impersonator for Fester actually really WAS Fester (with reportedly Lloyd himself being the only cast member who didnât care either way)! Nonetheless, this turns the whole movie into a series of âis he or isnât heâ scenarios, but the irony is that the impersonator (Gordon) was in and of himself pretty much a misanthrope (as Fester was proudly said to be) who carried around enough weapons and contraband with him to essentially be labeled a danger to society i.e. he fits in with the family perfectly whether heâs the actual Fester or not. Of course the movie goes for the angle that in gaining the familyâs trust the Fester impersonator also becomes fond of them as well which plays havoc with his conscience, but the film gets awfully claustrophobic as it spends nearly its entire first hour taking place inside the mansion with Hedayaâs lawyer, his wife (Dana Ivey) and Wilson as the impersonatorâs mother who in turn is impersonating a psychiatrist complete with phony accent being the only ânormalsâ to interact with them when much of the comic bread and butter here would seem to come from their general interactions with the outside world that we do get to an extent in the last third of the film when Gomez finds himself forced out of the house and laying about a cheap hotel room while Morticia goes to work at a daycare. The script is one that teeters precariously from overly repetitive catch phrases (try having a drinking game for every time Gomez utters âCara Miaâ and see just how long you last) to the occasional (but not often enough) brilliant zinger that perfectly epitomizes the twisted yet humorous nature that is supposed to be on display here (although the sequel would use a much more consistently funny script and be all the better as a movie because of it). In other roles, Ricci as Wednesday Addams would (rightfully) become a full fledged star off her performance here even if her role seems deliberately designed to be the âscene stealerâ of the whole affair mostly playing off of Jimmy Workman (as Pugsley) as her straight man / accomplice, whether it be with her strapping him to an electric chair to play a little game with him called Is There A God or the two of them effortlessly stealing the movie with their reenactment during a school play of a Shakespeare dueling scene complete with blood and gore splashing onto the shocked audience. It is also Wednesday who comes to believe that Fester (despite her obvious fondness for him) is not who he says he is which would seem to make her a pivotal player in that plot thread but instead she winds up barely being a part of it. Carel Struycken as the butler Lurch appeared to know going in that he wasnât going to top Ted Cassidyâs iconic portrayal from the TV show and so he doesnât even try, making Lurch instead into a mute character who only grunts here and there (unlike Cassidy who was responsible for the showâs most famous catchphrase âYou rang?â) and completely eliminates the famous comedic interplay between Lurch and Astinâs Gomez. Judith Malina as Grandmama is actually such a non factor character in so many ways that she would be replaced in the sequel by Carol Kane without the whole enterprise even skipping a beat. On top of that, we get a credited actor in Christopher Hart playing the role of Thing (the disembodied hand that serves as sort of the pet / mascot for The Family) and thankfully a good sized role for Cousin It (John Franklin), easily the single best character in the entire Addams Franchise with his wonderfully indecipherable pearls of wisdom. The film seems to walk a bit of a fine line in the realism department as a truly âgothâ family such as The Addamses could conceivably exist in our world until you factor in the âsupernaturalâ elements of the story (obviously forgiving the existence of Thing and the possibility of Lurch being a Frankenstein type creature) most notably the use of some âmagic booksâ that when opened can cause a literal weather and climate change in the room and the plants that can wrap around potential intruders to make for a perfect home security system not to mention that the steel front gates to the estate (named Gate) actually appear to have a life (and conscious thoughts) of their own, but once we get past the mystery of who Fester really is, we can then set and prepare ourselves for the superior sequel with most of the main cast returningâŠ
7/10