The Addams Family

This living horror comic looks great. Doubtless its cobwebs are the finest money can buy. Here is the familiar gallery of ghouls led by Morticia, a symphony in black, white and blood-red, matriarch to a Gothic family whose pet is Thing, a severed hand. And yet something is missing. It's flair, imagination, or whatever magic ingredient is needed to make the Addamses (if they'll pardon the expression) spring to life. A dance sequence at a party almost does it, but most of the characters stubbornly stay cardboard comic cut-outs. Honourable exceptions are Christopher Lloyd as long-lost brother Fester, a shaven demon with a wonderful idiot grin; and Christina Ricci as the Addams daughter, a perfectly poker-faced malevolent child. The dialogue is meticulously keyed to the Addams' love of the dark side of life. 'Imagine if Fester did come back,' muses Morticia's husband (Raul Julia). 'Half-human and a rotting shell.' 'Don't tease,' she replies. Big laughs, however, are notably missing, most gags are heavily staged, and the film remains a mildly diverting and expensive-looking walk on the weird side.