Movie Review: The Addams Family (1991)

Genre: Comedy  

Director: Barry Sonnenfeld  

Starring: Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd, Christina Ricci, Dan Hedaya  

Running Time: 99 minutes  

Synopsis: Macabre couple Gomez and Morticia Addams (Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston) live in a gothic mansion, where their children Wednesday (Christina Ricci) and Pugsley are always up to no good. Gomez misses his long-estranged brother Fester, a sadness that is exploited by cash-strapped lawyer Tully (Dan Hedaya) and his loan shark client Abigail (Elizabeth Wilson). They attempt to pass off Abigail's son Gordon (Christopher Lloyd) as Fester, in order to uncover the location of the Addams treasure.

What Works Well: A perfectly-cast cartoon adaptation, the adventures of the Addams family benefit from an unwavering weird-is-good ethos and a perfectly conceived dark visual theme of cobwebs, graves, and secret chambers. Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston play up the bizarre but unmistakable passion between Gomez and Morticia, while young Christina Ricci steals every scene she's in, always attempting to inflict a new version of harm on her eager brother, both of them earning mom's admiration in the process. Elsewhere Christopher Lloyd projects startling mime-like emotions from under layers of make-up, while the disembodied hand Thing somehow conveys personality and adds frantic comic relief. First time director Barry Sonnenfeld sustains a wicked brand of humour across the episodic quirkiness.

What Does Not Work As Well: The plot is no more than a flimsy excuse to justify the aesthetics, mood, quips, pranks, and set-pieces. 

Key Quote:

Morticia: Don't torture yourself, Gomez. That's my job.



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Movie Review: Now And Then (1995)

Genre: Coming-Of-Age Dramedy  

Director: Lesli Linka Glatter  

Starring: Demi Moore, Melanie Griffith, Rosie O'Donnell, Rita Wilson, Thora Birch, Christina Ricci  

Running Time: 100 minutes  

Synopsis: Now in their 30s, four friends from childhood re-convene in their small hometown of Shelby, Indiana. Chrissy (Rita Wilson) still lives in her parents' house and is about to give birth. Roberta (Rosie O'Donnell) is a doctor, Teeny (Melanie Griffiths) a Hollywood star, and Samantha (Demi Moore) an author. In a long flashback they reminisce about the summer of 1970, when as pre-teens they became aware of life's complexities, including imperfect parents, societal ills, and burgeoning sexuality.

What Works Well: This girl's equivalent of Stand By Me explores a range of pre-adult experiences ranging from mundane misadventures (the girls have a running feud with a group of boys) to painful awakenings into the adult world. The four young actresses (Ashleigh Aston Moore as Chrissy, Christina Ricci as Roberta, Thora Birch as Teeny, and Gaby Hoffman as Samantha) capably carry the acting load and tease out subtle bonds within the already sturdy quadrangle: Chrissy and Roberta are best friends and as adults remained in Shelby, while Teeny and Samantha share a more adventurous spirit and moved far from their hometown. Brendan Fraser adds era context as a Vietnam War veteran, and Walter Sparrow makes an impact as "Crazy" Pete.

What Does Not Work As Well: The adult Samantha over-narrates with saturated sullenness, and the book-end scenes featuring the grown women appear slapped-on to add marketable star names. Moore, Griffith, and O'Donnell barely mask their disinterest, while Wilson embraces cartoon representations. In the flashback, excessive time is occupied with a side-story involving seances and a community tragedy from years past, while a near-death encounter involving an over-sized catch basin is dramatic overkill.

Key Quote:

Young Roberta: You can't get pregnant from French-kissing!

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Movie Review: Black Snake Moan (2006)

A southern Gothic tale, Black Snake Moan mixes sex addiction, depression and the blues into a vigorous brew of unconventional salvation.

In rural Tennessee, Rae (Christina Ricci) is a sex addict barely keeping her life together with the help of boyfriend Ronnie (Justin Timberlake), who suffers from anxiety. But as soon as he leaves to join the National Guard, she succumbs to all her wild urges for instant sex and drugs.

In the same community, small-scale farmer and former blues guitarist Lazarus (Samuel L. Jackson) is emotionally distraught when his wife of 12 years Rose leaves him after having an affair with his brother. The local preacher R.L. tries in vain to entice Laz back to the church congregation.

After a wild night Rae is assaulted and dumped by the side of the road. Laz stumbles upon her limp body and provides refuge to tend her wounds. Once he realizes he has a sex addict on his hands, he chains Rae to the radiator for her own safety, and to try and extract her demons.

Mixing the literal with the metaphorical but remaining grounded in the reality of poverty, abuse and emotional dead-ends, Black Snake Moan embraces without judging. Writer and director Craig Brewer creates two broken individuals and generates warm sympathy for both. Rae and Lazarus are fragile products of an unforgiving society adept at grinding down spirits and crushing innocence, whether early or late in life.

The film is uncompromising. Foul language is rampant, Rae's sexuality unconstrained, and a couple of violent incidents are stark. Most of the characters have limited social skills to converse in anything other than shouting and seething threats. Into this cauldron Brewer tosses a reversal of slavery image with a Black man chaining a white woman to his radiator, and from the depths of his sense of betrayal, Lazarus self-defines a fiery mission to cure woman of what ails her.

A decadent white woman forced by a Black man to confront her sins and forsake her base urges is a scathing commentary on the state of the union, but Brewer provides pinches of humour and emotional space for both Laz and Rae to pull back from the combustible brink. Laz recoils from the depth of his abyss; Rae pauses to consider her triggers and the sanctuary Laz offers; his guitar and the expressive blues emerge as a possible unifying antidote to stave off the worst of what ails them.

Christina Ricci burns the screen as a young woman desperately trying to bury her past by excavating her present, and Samuel L. Jackson conveys pain, disappointment and no shortage of imagination with an economy of words and actions.

The black snake slithers to where damaged souls reside, and bites with the enticing venom of arduous redemption.



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Movie Review: Monster (2003)

A biographical crime drama, Monster delves into a dark world as seen through the eyes of a mass murderer.

In Daytona Beach, Florida, life is closing in on Aileen Wuornos (Charlize Theron). Sexually abused as a child and a prostitute since age 13, she is now seriously contemplating suicide. But a chance meeting at a gay bar with Selby Wall (Christina Ricci) gives her pause to reconsider. Selby is young, naive, and in conflict with her family about her sexuality. The two meet again at a rollerskating rink and romantic sparks ignite.

Selby believes Aileen can nurture her, while Aileen finally finds in Selby someone who will love her unconditionally. They plan to move in together to a motel room and work towards a better future. But Aileen's last client of the night turns out to be a violent rapist. She kills him in self defence, triggering traumas and a cycle of violence, derailing her attempts to reform and get a respectable job.

Inspired by Wuornos' real-life story, Monster offers the criminal's perspective without seeking sympathy or forgiveness, just understanding. Directed and written by Patty Jenkins, this is a hard-hitting story of a woman abused by life, literally and figuratively, since childhood. Prostitution is an escape parachute, a job allowing her to at least dream of something better as normalized society spits her out. But a life of servicing creeps eventually collides back with the abuse endured as a child, and now she hits back hard, snaps, and seeks the cold thrill of continued vengeance.

Into this tumultuous world stumbles the innocent Selby, escaping an emotional hell of her own but far from equipped to deal with the real world. The two women find a level of temporary solace with each other, enough of a pause to imagine an idyllic opportunity. But it's a fleeting moment, salvation is far out of reach, and Selby becomes a witness and wholly unintended enabler but always a victim.

The film is narrated by Theron as Wuornos, giving voice to marginalized women too often ignored. A physically transformed and utterly deglamorized Theron is a domineering screen presence, commanding the screen to reveal a psyche scarred beyond deliverance. Christina Ricci offers a doe-eyed and fragile counterpoint, a young woman willing to fall for anyone who simply accepts her.

Combining moments of harrowing violence with the touching flickers of humanity, Monster unfolds in decrepit motel rooms, highway underpasses, gas station toilets and the cars of men seeking the cheapest form of sex: the overlooked corners where the hopeless converge, and monsters are born.

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Movie Review: The Ice Storm (1997)

A family drama about dysfunctionalities hidden beneath the surface of middle class normalcy, The Ice Storm uncovers emotional wreckage but fails to properly engage with its characters.

It's the early 1970s in the quaint town of New Canaan, Connecticut. Thanksgiving is approaching, winter is setting in and an ice storm is in the forecast. The Watergate scandal is brewing, and a new wind of sexual and drug experimentation sweeps through the seemingly staid suburban subdivisions. Ben Hood (Kevin Kline) is married to Elena (Joan Allen), but their marriage spark has long since extinguished, driving Ben into having an affair with married neighbour Janey Carver (Sigourney Weaver). Elena meanwhile is depressed and resorts to shoplifting. The latest adult trend is the "key party", where couples swap partners at the end of the evening through a random draw car key lottery.

The Hoods' teenaged children are Paul (Tobey Maguire), now attending college, and the younger Wendy (Christina Ricci), and they are having issues of their own. Paul has developed a crush on classmate Libbets (Katie Holmes), but his roommate Francis (David Krumholtz) always nabs whichever girl Paul is interested in. The brooding Wendy is into full sexual experimentation mode, and her targets include Janey's two boys Mikey (Elijah Wood) and Sandy (Adam Hann-Byrd). When the ice storm arrives and outdoor conditions become treacherous, the indoor drama also reaches critical levels.

Ang Lee directed this adaptation of the Rick Moody book, and while it is always salaciously irresistible to peak behind the curtains of the neighbours' bedroom windows to spy on dirty secrets, and the wintry New England setting is attractive, this is as far as the film's appeal goes. Past the sex, drugs, infidelity and misery running rampant through two generations of suburbanites, The Ice Storm offers little in the way of engagement.

Part of the problems is that the characters are reactive (or, more accurately, inactive) and living under the shroud of non-communication. They say so little that they never become rounded people. Ben and Elena are presumably at the centre of the film, but close to two hours pass and next to nothing is revealed about them, except that their marriage is in trouble. Even less is known about the Carvers as people, other than that their relationship is also broken.

Ironically, Paul and Wendy emerge as more provocative than their parents, with Wendy in particular harbouring all kinds of strange intentions, victimizing Mikey and Sandy in pursuit of her own journey of discovery. Paul's clumsy attempts to carve out private time with Libbets backfires in humourous fashion.

Other than frequent viewings of President Nixon on television and some fashion garments on the wild side, the early 1970s era is underused. The dialogue is generic, and the James Schamus screenplay is unable to convey a genuine vibe for the turbulence of the times. Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver and Joan Allen are strongly associated with the 1980s or later years, and not much is done with hairstyles and mannerisms to help them relocate to an earlier time.

The Ice Storm is a polished observation of a society in flux. But it remains a superficial view, as cold to the soul as the ice unleashed by nature.

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