Day Forty-Five: The Addams Family

THE ADDAMS FAMILY

Starring:
-Anjelica Huston
-Christopher Lloyd
-Raul Julia
-Christina Ricci

Directed by: Barry Sonnenfeld

Screenplay Credits: Caroline Thompson & Larry Wilson

MPAA Rating: PG-13

The Addams’ family lawyer, Tully, needs money desperately. He decides that stealing from the Addams would be easy as pie, especially if he enlists a creepy woman and her strange son Gordon. Gordon poses as Uncle Fester, who has been missing for 25 years. He rejoins the family with a story about being discovered with amnesia in the Bermuda Triangle. He moves in, all the while plotting to discover the location of the family vault, rob them blind, and possibly kill them.

The family becomes suspicious and eventually even Gomez becomes convinces that Fester’s a phony. Gordon’s mom, posing as a German doctor, assures them that all is well and that the family is just having a little difficulty readjusting to one another. In reality, phony Fester has grown to love spending time with the creepy, kooky, mysterious, and spooky bunch. He especially enjoys the kids, Wednesday and Pugsley, and he teaches them all sorts of useful things, like how to blow up buildings and identify the many different varieties of scabs.

Dr. German tells the family that Fester must go back to the life he made for himself in the Bermuda Triangle, but Morticia and Gomez insist on throwing him a goodbye party with all the Addams clan. Imagine a Tim Burton family reunion.

As Gordon and his Mom prepare for the party, Wednesday walks in on them plotting the heist. They chase her into the graveyard, where she hides. “Fester” returns to the party where Gomez springs yet another “family tradition” on him. Fester handles this surprisingly well and dances the strange dance exactly as he’s supposed to. The family realizes that Wednesday is missing and Gomez finds her asleep in the family tomb.

Under his mother’s iron thumb, “Fester” becomes the executor of the estate and all the finances, which forces Gomez and the rest of the family into a cheap motel. They’re all forced to get “real jobs”, a task that ends with disastrous results. Morticia decides to take action and heads back to the mansion to confront Fester. She is captured by Gordon, his mom, and Tully. They put her on a rack to torture her, but naturally she enjoys it.

Thing braves busy traffic to find Gomez and tell him Morticia’s in trouble. Gomez rushes to her aid, but in the end it’s Fester who saves the day by literally blowing the bad guys into their graves.

Seven months later we learn that “Gordon” really is Uncle Fester, and that the creepy criminal woman really did find him tangled in a coral reef in the Bermuda Triangle. Strange.

Morticia tells Gomez she’s expecting a three-legged baby and they kiss dramatically while the rest of the family plays in the graveyard.


I like this movie. It’s not the greatest thing since sliced bread, but it is what it is. Everything is dark and cartoonish, which is as it should be. Raul Julia has Gomez’s wide-eyed earnestness down perfectly, and I love how Morticia was always standing in that same creepy, yet flattering light.

There are many, many allusions to the original television show, which is the appropriate thing to do when paying homage to TV characters. Just about every Addams quirk you can think of has been either represented or mentioned here: Gomez’s trains, Granny’s creepy recipes, Morticia snipping the heads off roses, Wednesday and Pugsley’s gruesome toys and games, and especially the epic and passionate love story of Gomez & Tish. One thing I have always loved about Gomez and Morticia is that they are all over each other, all the time. They are the ultimate horndogs. But they’re married, so it’s okay.

Gomez: Tish, how long has it been since we waltzed?
Morticia: Oh, Gomez….hours.

To me, the storyline is pretty much irrelevant because I simply enjoyed spending time in the Addams family world again. The actors may have changed, but the characters haven’t and I love them for it.


FINAL GRADE: B-

Off in search of a broomstick I can crawl on,

M.