In a sentenceGomez and Morticia have found the secret of a happy marriage: being equally alarming
Gomez Addams (Raúl Juliá) is devoted to his wife, Morticia (Anjelica Huston), and the pair preside over a household with a taste for the macabre. Wednesday (Christina Ricci), Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) and Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd) belong to a family whose ghoulish outlook makes ordinary domestic life rather different. Granny (Judith Malina), Lurch (Carel Struycken) and Thing (Christopher Hart) also inhabit their spooky surroundings. Barry Sonnenfeld directs this fantasy comedy about family life among people who see little reason to be alarmed by the things that frighten everyone else.
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Barry Sonnenfeld’s macabre comedy is worth an evening for its cast, especially Anjelica Huston and Raúl Juliá. The story barely holds the jokes together, but the family’s warmth makes the thin plotting easier to forgive.
Barry Sonnenfeld’s The Addams Family works best when it lets its household get on with being peculiar, without making a great event of it. The black humour is delivered with an assurance that the story seldom matches, and the cast makes a fairly slight comedy worth the evening. We are invited to enjoy these people, and the film has little interest in making them more like everyone else. That is a sound basis for a family comedy, even when there is not much happening between the jokes.
Raúl Juliá’s Gomez and Anjelica Huston’s Morticia are the chief reason to stay. His devotion gives her composure something to respond to, and their pleasure in each other’s company prevents the ghoulishness from turning sour. We were unexpectedly touched by Gomez’s adoration of Morticia; Juliá makes it feel wholehearted, and Huston never treats him as a fool for it. The humour works because the actors take the marriage seriously, even when almost everything surrounding it is ridiculous.
Christina Ricci’s Wednesday is useful precisely because she does not compete with the adults for attention. Her restraint makes the one-liners feel like expressions of character, which is more than the writing always manages elsewhere. Christopher Lloyd gives Uncle Fester enough presence to hold his place alongside the central couple without making every moment a demand for applause. The performances vary in size, but they belong in the same household.
Richard Macdonald’s production design makes the spooky home seem comfortable for its inhabitants, whatever we might make of it. The decoration is funny in its own right, and Owen Roizman’s cinematography allows us to enjoy it without losing the actors among the scenery. Ruth Myers’s costumes do similar work for Huston: Morticia looks entirely at ease in what she wears, and that helps the jokes. These are useful choices in a comedy that needs us to accept its characters before it can get much further.
Larry Wilson and Caroline Thompson’s screenplay is less dependable once it needs to connect those people and jokes into a story. Individual moments are often funny, but too many could be moved around without changing much, and interest drops whenever the film asks us to care about what happens next. Editors Dede Allen and Jim Miller give the one-liners room to land, but the gaps between comic highlights remain conspicuous. At 100 minutes, it has stretches that feel longer than the material warrants.
Marc Shaiman’s music helps keep the macabre material playful, although it cannot supply momentum when the script runs short. Sonnenfeld has a firm grasp of the tone, which matters in a comedy built around such a narrow premise. There is only so much surprise in discovering that this family enjoys what others recoil from. The film gets further by letting us enjoy the company, particularly whenever Huston and Juliá are together.
Those coming chiefly for a tightly worked fantasy plot will find plenty to distract them and little to satisfy that particular appetite. For a comedy, though, a cast this comfortable with one another counts for a good deal, and the affection stops the dry humour from becoming merely arch. Choose it for an evening of morbid jokes and unusually devoted spouses; accept that the story sometimes needs carrying.
Most critics like The Addams Family, though rarely with much force. The praise lands almost entirely on the casting: Anjelica Huston’s Morticia is named in nearly every review as the film’s best decision, with Raul Julia’s Gomez, Christopher Lloyd’s Fester and Christina Ricci’s Wednesday close behind. Several also credit Sonnenfeld with keeping the black humour of Charles Addams’ cartoons intact, and the production design and camera tricks draw approving mentions.
The reservations cluster on the story, or the lack of one. Even the warmer reviews describe a string of gags and one-liners rather than a plot, and the harsher ones say those gags never build into anything. The spread is wide: six reviews are positive and three firmly negative, with Variety calling it a major disappointment and The New Yorker finding it misses the cartoons’ subversive edge. The Los Angeles Times concedes the visual splendour but finds little to hold the attention.
This is a glorious exception to Hollywood's plundering of classic TV series, thanks to Sonnenfeld sticking with the black humour and inspired casting including note-perfect Huston and Julia plus Lloyd as Fester.
Read the full review →The critic finds the film ridiculous but fun as a string of ghoulish gags and one-liners in a spooky setting, rather than a substantial story. Anjelica Huston's Morticia is singled out as magnificent and perfectly cast, alongside strong turns from Christopher Lloyd and Christina Ricci.
Read the full review →The everyday story of ghoulish folk from Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons is stylishly converted into a big screen comedy. It stars Anjelica Huston, Christina Ricci, Christopher Lloyd and Raul Julia.
Read the full review →The critic praises the film as a lavish and funny revival that captures the cartoons' dry, wicked tone through ingenious casting, droll production design, spirited direction, and camera tricks. She complains that the slender plot consists mostly of isolated humorous moments strung together without much narrative substance.
Read the full review →For a one-joke movie this adaptation still summons up enough laughs. The chief pleasure is in the casting, with Huston born to play Morticia, Julia as her devoted husband and Lloyd excellent as Fester.
Read the full review →The critic finds the film mildly entertaining but ultimately flat, with isolated funny moments that fail to build into sustained comedy. He praises the cast chemistry, especially Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston, and the visual fidelity to the original cartoons.
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BeetlejuiceAnother household comedy where the macabre characters get most of the laughs.
The Old Dark House · not reviewed yetA stranger household, sour humour and hospitality that quickly becomes a concern.
The WitchesFor more family fantasy with a nasty streak and relish for grotesques.
What We Do in the Shadows · not reviewed yetVampires share a home and discover that immortality does not settle domestic disputes.
House · not reviewed yetFor adults: stranger, harsher haunted-house comedy that makes the Addamses look restrained.
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