THE ADDAMS FAMILY (1991) **1/2 It's very difficult to do a feature film of a tv series. Everyone points to the difficulty of stretching the typical 30 minute plot to three times that length, but even more difficult is overcoming the reality that tv actors have developed their characters over periods of hours and hours (tens, sometimes hundreds), and film actors have to develop their characters quickly and get on with it. "The Addams Family" series was a beautiful ongoing romance powered primarily by the wonderful and incredible chemistry, history and mutual admiration between John Astin and Carolyn Jones. This is simply unmatchable by other actors stepping in, and Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston were probably wrong to try so hard to do so. It seems forced, not even a reference of the real thing. Of course Raul and Anjelica are both tremendous actors, and so they bring some new aspects to the roles, which could have been accentuated in place of the now obligatory romance. Raul brings a depth and pathos to Gomez that we've never seen before, a side as sad and even frustrated as it is silly. Anjelica is a truly dangerous woman, someone to be feared as well as celebrated as the ideal of....as an Addams family ideal. The tv romance takes place against a backdrop that is unquestionably idiosyncratic, but it felt more like a celebration of nonconformism and diversity than anything else. The Addams family here attacks willful perversity with the same affected enthusiasm that the principals put towards romance. Because of all this, the great sets are nearly (nearly) as irritating and interesting, it just feels like they're all trying too hard. It's definitely not without charm, and it's entertaining enough to keep the fact that it reminds you of something better to the side for the most part but, among other things, I kept waiting for Christopher Lloyd to jump up and take over but it never really happened.
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