The Addams Family (2019) - Movie Review

Of all the preconceptions I’ve gone into a film with, this one marks a particularly dark possibility. Namely, while I was watching this, I was seriously hoping that none of the animators had to work in sweatshop conditions to make it. Yes, coming from the directors behind Sausage Party, in particular Nitrogen Studios head and human ringpiece Greg Tiernan, that is a legit worry. Admittedly, there haven’t been any reports yet of such things being the case with this one, but considering Sausage Party’s place as one of my few genuine problematic favourites because of what happened behind the scenes, I really hope this isn’t just Act II of the same shit. Especially since it would mean once again being conflicted over a film I enjoyed.

Knowing how pitch-perfect the casting in previous Addams Family films have been, this film could have had the next best thing across the board and it would still be an uphill struggle for efficacy. Thankfully, though, the voice cast are all pretty well matched. Charlize Theron and Oscar Isaac work nicely as the epitome of goth relationship goals as Morticia and Gomez, even though their romantic chemistry is admittedly weaker than I would’ve liked. Chloë Grace Moretz as Wednesday may not be able to escape Christina Ricci’s shadow, but considering the campy deadpan tone of the IP as a whole, she ends up being the closest match to it.

Nick Kroll as Fester is rather annoying, Bette Midler as Grandmama is just kinda there, co-director Conrad Vernon as Lurch gets some good laughs, and Finn Wolfhard as Pugsley marks the unique aspect where this film turns out better than past iterations. He imbues the role with much-needed energy, making the rivalry between him and Wednesday into something more balanced than before.

As for the visuals, this really looks like it’s taken whole chapters out of the Hotel Transylvania playbook, which only ends up highlighting that they’re making use of the license in an all-CGI arena. The in-fighting and dark slapstick is given a solid energetic boost, from Pugsley firing bombs and rockets at people, to Wednesday’s friendship with Ichabod the tree, to the quite destructive finale, and the character designs are very eye-catching. It’s all exaggerated body proportions, where it looks like everyone has been stretched in different places, and some of the smaller details, like Wednesday’s noose braids, show a definite want to adhere to the source material’s aesthetic.

Which is certainly a good move, because it ends up helping to separate this film from what it very clearly wishes it was: A Tim Burton production. This film’s production cycle started out with Illumination Studios tapping Burton to direct, and looking at the story specifics, some of it feels directly lifted from his films. You’ve got the juxtaposition of a creepy mansion on a hill overlooking garishly pastel suburbia like Edward Scissorhands, the pale-faced norm for the Addams family themselves is all kinds of Burton, and the story itself about outsider loners rubbing against the ‘normalised’ establishment is basically his entire schtick. It’s another case of a story being too good of a fit for his visual style, and it’s another shadow that the film never ends up crawling out of.

But then again, this film manages to impress in an entirely different way with those same conceits, and it makes for a welcome re-appraisal of the subversiveness that is at the core of the Addams aesthetic. It wields anti-conformity like an truncheon as one would expect, but it actually ends up re-examining the whole idea of non-conforming in the modern era. “Be yourself” is such a constantly-repeated motif that, ironically, it has basically become the mantra that most people conform to. To decry conformity is to conform; it’s a bit of a tricky logical paradox to get out from.

 

And here, that ends up manifesting as it usually does with Wednesday, who has lived a sheltered existence in the Addams family estate (itself a haunted insane asylum) and is curious about the world beyond the gates. So when her mother forbids her from indulging her curiosity, what better way to rebel against a goth matriarch than wearing enough pink to burn retinas out of people’s heads? It’s a cool twist on the usual “be yourself” mantra, and when the film goes all-out in embracing everyone’s weirdness, it actually hits a stronger chord than a lot of other family films have managed of late.

That said, this is all in spite of just how familiar the rest of the film turns out. The jokes end up being really played out references and the kind of quipping that would have sounded trite back when the original TV show was still on the air, the main goth vs. suburbia friction itself falls into the same category, and when all is said and done, the main villain plot is pretty standard. It banks on the familiar idea that the people are most insist that they are normal are the ones doing the weirdest shit, like with Allison Janney as the makeover-obsessed Margaux, and while it plays nicely into the film’s denouement, for this franchise, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before.

This new Addams Family movie isn’t exactly the greatest thing out there. Hell, it ends up being quite a bit weaker than the Sonnenfeld movies, Addams Family Values in particular. But for a step into new production territory, and as a genuine attempt to make the franchise still relevant in an era that has wholly embraced their weirdness, this turned out pretty well and I rather enjoyed it. I don’t see myself returning to it anytime soon, though, and that initial question about working conditions is still up in air for all I know.