‘The Addams Family’ reboot is an inconsequential mess

As a kid, I remember seeing the then-recently-released Addams Family films, and enjoying the bizarre and hilarious world of the family (plus, it had the always-brilliant Christopher Lloyd as Uncle Fester). I really recommend them to you, particularly after the disappointing experience I had watching the computer-animated reboot of the series. There’s nothing really wrong with this year’s The Addams Family, but it doesn’t really do that much right either – the film is an inconsequential mess, and not even the game voice cast can save it.

On the night of their wedding, Gomez (Oscar Isaac) and Morticia Addams (Charlize Theron) are run out of town by people who consider them weird. Looking for a place that “no-one would be caught dead in”, they wind up in New Jersey and set up their home. Thirteen years later, the Addams live in isolation with their children Pugsley (Finn Wolfhard) and Wednesday (Chloë Grace Moretz), but the sudden arrival of a balloon on their property leads the family into the wider community – and, in particular, puts them up against the home makeover star Margaux Needler (Allison Janney).

There’s nothing really wrong with this year’s The Addams Family, but it doesn’t really do that much right either

The film’s main focus is on its characters, and the voice actors imbue them with lots of personality. Isaac presents a Gomez full of joie de vivre, yet struggling with concern that Pugsley may not pass the family rite of passage. Theron is restrained and vampish, and with her own parental issues, as Wednesday seems to grow more enamoured with the outside world. And there’s a ton of fantastic vocal talent sprinkled throughout the film, from Bette Midler as Gomez’s mother to Eighth Grade’s Elsie Fisher as Needler’s daughter. More inexplicable is Snoop Dogg as Cousin Itt, with a voice so tuned you’d never guess who it was.

There’s a lot going on in The Addams Family, meaning that it feels overstuffed yet also incredibly thin. There are so many plotlines and characters bandied about, meaning that the film can often feel like a series of set-pieces rather than a fully cohesive whole. This is particularly evident in the conflict with Needler, which fully takes form in the final ten minutes and is resolved incredibly swiftly (probably in the final three). There’s so much focus on having fun with the family, the film almost forgets to provide much in the way of story.

The Addams Family is essentially an inoffensive film – it just ought to have been a lot better

Annoyingly, there are hints of a better film here. The opening ten minutes are a good mixture of macabre and amusing (the only moment when the film really embraces the darkness of the source material), and you can feel a decline when the film takes its time jump forwards. Similarly, Wednesday’s time in the outside world and at school seem fruitful material for comedy, but the plotline is abandoned after two scenes. Using this story is exactly the groundwork that you need to make the film’s message of inclusivity feel earned and genuine, but it’s just kind of shoehorned in and so painfully on the nose, because that’s what animated films do.

The people who made The Addams Family clearly have a lot of love for the property (as evidenced in a credits recreation of the original show’s opening and a score that relies a bit too heavily on the original theme), but it’s not enough in itself to carry the film. It’s cartoonish and the upside-down nature of the Addams’ delights will appeal to kids, but there’s not really anything for anyone above the age of ten. I don’t want to slate it, because The Addams Family is essentially an inoffensive film and there’s nothing technically wrong – it just ought to have been a lot better.