The Addams Family

THE ADDAMS FAMILY

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: a séance

Rated:

Everyone remembers them, the gaggle of funny misfits from the grand old days of black and white television. The Addams Family have become synonymous with morbid humor, and the film is no different. It's even quite charming, in a rather bleak kind of way.

Most families have an eccentric or two, but this one has six. The Addams Family are known throughout the neighborhood for being rather grim. There is the rather obnoxious Gomez (Raul Julia), who purposefully breaks windows in his neighbor's house just for fun, his delightfully morose wife Morticia (Anjelica Huston), who trims roses and keeps just the stems, her deranged mother (Judith Malina), the infamous Frankenstein-like butler, called "Lurch" (Carel Struycken), a disembodied hand called "Thing," and the children: Wednesday (Christina Ricci) and Pugsley (Jimmy Workman), who live purely for the joy in electrocuting one another. Employed by the Addams Family is a local lawyer, Tully Alford (Dan Hedaya), who is deeply in debt. Knowing that his employers seem to have a boundless amount of gold deep in the family vaults, he attempts to discern how best to take it from them.

Brought into this dubious plan is the woman responsible for the misery in his life, the woman to whom he owes a fortune. Abigail Craven (Elizabeth Wilson) devises a plan to pass her reluctant and mentally deranged son off as Gomer's long lost older brother Fester (Christopher Lloyd), who vanished some twenty years before and was never heard from again. Fester is welcomed into the house but treated with suspicion by the children, who suspect that he is up to something. Even as he attempts to discern the secrets of the monstrous old house, Fester finds himself lured deeper into their world of morbid fascinations, sadistic pranks, and melancholy dinner conversations, which places his mother's plan in jeopardy.

Not everyone will appreciate the kind of humor to be found in this creepy little film, but more than once it had me smiling. This is the most deranged family you will ever find, and yet they are wonderfully appealing. The children and their attempts to decapitate one another (never meant in ill humor). Gomez and Morticia's youthful passion whenever they have a moment alone. The antics of "Thing" as it scampers about the house. If you liked the old television series, you will enjoy the film. If you are not familiar with either one, you may want to be forewarned that a healthy, morbid sense of humor is a must if you intend to visit this sinister domain. The casting was perfect, particularly Huston as Morticia, a woman who is empirical but also beautiful. Ricci's performance is extremely restrained, as the character is very morose and withdrawn, but the children grow on you.

I am not sure why this was given a PG13 rating, as there is very little inappropriate content, and must conclude that the antics of the Addams children might have encouraged kids to follow dangerous experiments. They are shown hooking one another up to electric chairs, standing in the rain with an antenna in the hopes of attracting lightening, chasing one another around the house wielding mallets and knives, and horrifying outsiders with a gory depiction of a sword fight, complete with fake blood that sprays the first two rows of observers. There is no sexual content, but Morticia and Gomez make out passionately on several occasions. Mild innuendo intrudes, along with sparse profanity. There are some nude statues in the graveyard. Dark humor involves conversations about death, jokes on torture and pain, food that is still moving on the plate, and quips on mortality.

The only element that made me particularly uneasy was the presence of a séance, when Grandma rubs a crystal ball and calls out to the spirit of Fester. Rather an unorthodox film in many respects, The Addams Family will appeal to those who enjoy worlds in which everything is slightly out of turn, but for more sensitive audiences, I would recommend Lemony Snicket instead.