The Addams Family

Grade: C+

I learn that The Addams Family began in 1938 as a series of one-panel cartoons in The New Yorker, before the creepy, kooky, altogether ooky family took on a handful of other forms. I was a big fan of the sitcom from the 1960s, and my 10-year-old impressionable self loved the live action film from 1991. I never did get around to seeing Addams Family Values, nor have I seen or heard a single note from the Broadway show.

A reason the sitcom worked so well was because each episode was only a half hour – not long enough to get sick of the premise’s limited artistic range. It has always been a one-joke deal. One-note, too, since the main characters are always so deadpan. The 2019 animated film The Addams Family is chock full of one-liners – most of them quite clever, and a few that had me disgustedly groaning like Lurch from the original sitcom. There is some nice, familiar voice talent here: Oscar Isaac and Charlize Theron are Gomez and Morticia, while Chloe Grace Moretz (Let Me In) and Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things and the IT movies) are Wednesday and Pugsley. Martin Short, Snoop Dogg, Nick Kroll, Bette Midler, and Catherine O’Hara round out the supporting cast. Allison Janney plays a shallow home makeover reality show host, who is determined to make over the Addams mansion to make the neighborhood look better for current and prospective new neighbors. There is a deliciously fun through-line where she frequently reads and posts on a Nextdoor-like app called Neighborhood Peeps. I miss how talkative Lurch was in the TV show. He’s almost mute in many subsequent versions, but what they do with him here is delightfully inspired and provided the biggest laugh for me. The Family members get off their usual one-liners like “Are you unhappy, my love?” “Yes, perfectly, thank you.” Or “Come on in, make yourself uncomfortable. It’s so disappointing to see you again.”

Now look at me, reduced to quoting some of the best parts. That is, alas, the most I got out of 2019’s The Addams Family. The plot is unoriginal and preachy, like the cheesiest of the after-school specials about how you shouldn’t judge others who are different from you, just because they are different. The cleverness of the individual lines in the script isn’t enough to sustain it through a whole film. The ending is confusingly hasty with murky character intentions. How DID those two particular characters end up as love interests at the end? You don’t have to answer that for me – I don’t care that much.

Grade: C+