Director Report Card: Barry Sonnenfeld (1991)

If Barry Sonnenfeld had stuck to his career as a cinematographer, he would probably still have a great career. He was the director-of-photographer on three of the Coen Brothers' early classics, as well as a series of other highly regarded popular films. If he never transitioned to directing, he'd still have “Blood Simple” and “Big” on his resume. Yet Sonnenfled would make that leap in the early nineties, eventually becoming the filmmaker behind several beloved cult classics and major blockbusters. Even if his career definitely declined in the last decade, he still made some movies that I adored as a kid. So let's indulge in some nostalgia and take a look back at this amusing fellow's successes and failures.

1. The Addams Family

In 1938, cartoonist Charles Addams created a comic strip about an eccentric family. The characters, which soon came to share their creator's surname, reveled in the macabre, bizarre, and the unconventional. The one-panel gag strip soon ran regularly for fifty years. The family members gained first names, growing more fleshed-out, when the strip became a television series in 1964. Despite only running for two seasons, the show became a fondly recalled classic due to its lovable cast, quirky humor, and unforgettable theme song. It's that catchy theme song, after an impromptu singalong in a car ride, that inspired producer Scott Rubin to pursue a film adaptation of Addams' comics in the early nineties. After first choice Tim Burton, who even did some work on the script, passed, Barry Sonnenfeld would make his directorial debut with the film.

The ever-eccentric Addams Family have lived out their defiantly unique lives in peace and prosperity for years. Yet something haunts otherwise enthusiastic patriarch Gomez. His brother Fester disappeared years ago, following a disagreement. This comes to the attention of the family's duplicitous accountant, Tully. He realizes that the psychotic son of his loan shark Abigail Craven resembles Fester. The trio cooks up a con to get at the Addams' considerable fortune. As “Fester” lives among the altogether ooky Addams, he begins to suspect that he may actually be a part of the macabre brood. 

“The Addams Family” is a movie essentially with one joke. The Addams will do something morbid or macabre, treating it as totally normal and charming. Likewise, when faced with something ordinary or typical, they will respond with horror or confusion. Yet, somehow, this gag is executed with perfect pitch each time. Mortica will nod approvingly as her children go about electrocuting each other or calmly hand her daughter an oversized cleaver. Fester and the kids bond over pictures of scabs. The family claps and cheers during a talent show, that concludes with the audience sprayed with fake blood. You can easily predict what the punchline to every joke will be, yet the laughs come each time. “The Addams Family” is a perfected oiled gag delivery machine, the flawless execution bringing up material that might've floundered in lesser hands. 

Part of why “The Addams Family” gets so many laughs out of its premise is due to its versatility. The Addams represents diametric opposites of the traditional American family. Which means they love cobwebs, deformities, cemeteries, the insane and the brutal. Yet it also means, in a sly type of social commentary, that the husband and wife are deeply in love. Gomez and Mortcia's passion for each other is unquenchable. In a shocking display of progressiveness from a nineties studio movie, they are openly kinky. The “normal' people in the film include the greed-obsessed Craven and the deeply unhappy Tully. Soon enough, Tully's wife is drawn into the Addams lifestyle, realizing that their eccentricities hide genuine warmth. When forced to exist in mundane society in the film's second half, Gomez falls into a depression. Though the rest of the family refuses to give in, remaining determined to their individuality. Through the lens of the Addams' world, we see how truly unhealthy “regular” society is.

Perhaps another reason why “The Addams Family” remains so refreshingly funny throughout is the playfulness inherent in its visual design. After two other directors-of-photography quit, Sonnenfeld decided to just shoot the movie himself. And he sure as hell wanted everyone to know a cinematographer made this movie. A kinetic sense of energy propels every minute of “The Addams Family.” Multiple tracking shots slide through the halls and along the floors of the Addams mansion. Sonnenfeld attaches his camera to darts, swords, and fireballs as they fly through the air. Dutch angles, eccentric close-ups, and charmingly artificial visual effects further the film's pitch-perfect visual construction.

Sonnenfeld's joyfully energetic style contributes to the comedy more often than not. The mad cap energy seen in scenes devoted to Thing delivering gifts or tapping out a message might not have connected at all without the speedy visuals. Or the delightfully goofy scenes devoted to characters dragged through the home's booby traps, Gomez playing with his trains, or the storm-filled finale. These represent the most aggressively wacky jokes, a pitch the film wisely doesn't attempt to hold throughout. In fact, “The Addams Family” is also home to some wonderfully still and quiet sequences. Mortica leading Fester on a tour through the graveyard or Wednesday found asleep in a tomb have an almost melancholy presence to them, a perfect compliment to the film's gothic set dressing. 

Yet the production design goes a hell of a long way too. Every set, prop, and costume is gorgeous. The Addams mansion is a perfectly gothic location, bathed in almost monochrome blacks and greys. The Addams family cemetery, dotted with unforgettably expressionistic statues, is another unforgettably designed element of the film. The attention to detail is even present in the mundane locations. The world outside the Addams' home is painted in puke greens and dirty whites. It's bland and awful and lacking in all the loving details and rich artistry of the family's home. A perfect visual summation of the film's ideas.

As well assembled as “The Addams Family” is, it can't escape some of the pitfalls of its genre. I don't mean as a comedy. I mean as a TV series adaptation. The film's plot is more than a little episodic. The premise of a possible impostor Fester trying to integrate himself into the family drives the story. Yet this set-up is still mostly an excuse for a series of comedic encounters. A minor subplot involves a charity auction. Another sequence is built around Wednesday and Pugsley's talent show performance. Or the reunion meant to celebrate Fester's return. Even the series of scenes in the second half, showing the Addams' attempt to integrate into the regular world, feels like it could easily stand alone. Honestly, writing this has made me realize how all these scenes sound like half-hour episodes.

There's also a dramatic risk of sorts in the script, that the film can't quite overcome. We, as the viewer, know immediately that “Gordon Craven” is actually Fester Addams. As soon as he comes on-screen, it's kind of hard not to realize that. The story has “Gordon” denying this, clashing with the family, being freaked out, but slowly coming to realize his actual identity. This can be pretty funny – Fester's reaction to meeting Thing, and Gomez's reaction to that, is hilarious – but it probably could've been a little better realized. Fester remains secretly cold to the family, thinking they're crazy, before suddenly developing a fondness for the kids. It happens in one scene and the character is almost totally changed after that moment. A slower, more natural build-up to this was certainly possible.

Not that it really matters too much because “The Addams Family” soars thanks to its incredible cast. Respected thespian Raul Julia would make his commercial breakthrough as Gomez. And he's perfect. Julia summons a boundless energy in many scenes, leaping through windows or off his desk. You really believe he can dance the Manuska. Julia also has perfect comedic timing, leaping right over absurd dialogue in such a way that you could miss it on a first viewing. His Gomez is distinct from John Astin's, less goofy, but immediately iconic. He also has amazing chemistry with Anjelica Huston as Morticia. Huston beat out Cher for the part and it's not hard to see why. Her precise body language captures the exacting sensuality and clear personality of the character. Huston's delivery is always quiet, because Morticia always knows exactly what she wants.

Though not quite her first role, Wednesday Addams is still the part that turned Christina Ricci into a cult icon. (Not to mention making her a goth fashion icon.) She still has some of that unavoidable child actor stiffness in a few scenes but Ricci's unblinking glare and deadpan delivery makes her ideal for the role. Ricci's ability to maintain an icy composure while saying terrible things certainly results in some of the movie's funniest lines. Jimmy Workman's Pugsley is the wide-eyed innocent to Ricci's quietly boiling Wednesday. His goofy, puppy dog energy is an ideal match. Carel Struycken also has just the right body language as Lurch, who goes about his job with Frankenstein-ian composure, no matter how offbeat the activities might be. 

All of these casting choices are obvious, in retrospect, with one exception. Christopher Lloyd, on paper, probably didn't seem like anyone's first choice for Fester Addams. You wouldn't associate bald, rotund Uncle Fester with the guy who played tall, thin figures like Doc Brown or Judge Doom. The fat suit Lloyd wears throughout is a little weird. Yet he still makes the part his own, providing a darker and more sardonic edge to the part first played by Jackie Coogan before slowly revealing a goofier side. He certainly plays nicely off Elizabeth Wilson, as Abigail Craven. Wilson plays Craven as someone utterly banal in her evil, committed to her abusive and manipulative ways. Dan Hedaya and Dana Ivey also make Tully and his wife way more entertaining than they probably needed to be. 

If it wasn't obvious, “The Addams Family” is a movie I'm inordinately fond of. It was a common feature in my childhood VHS player. I was already developing my appreciation for spooky stuff and sick humor, which is probably why I attached myself to the movie so much. Those who accuses the movie of being Burton Lite are right on the money. (This is especially true of Marc Shaiman's score, which does such a good job of aping Danny Elfman's style that I assumed it was his work for years.) Yet when compared to the numerous other TV-to-film adaptations of the decade, “The Addams Family” undoubtedly emerges as the leader of the pack. Sonnenfeld's energetic direction, amazing production design, and a cast that could not have been better cements this as a nostalgic classic for me and weirdos like me. [Grade: A-]