CUTAWAYS: THE ADDAMS FAMILY READS THE BROTHERS GRIMM

This week for Aleteia I reviewed “Boyhood,” the new film from Richard Linklater which has received something akin to worship from most of the major film critics out there. Chances are, you also might find it to be a deeply moving cinematic experience… or a complete waste of three hours of your life. It really depends on if you manage to make a personal connection to the film’s message.

I say the film’s message, because you probably won’t connect at all with the film’s characters. They range from uninteresting to downright irritating. Mainly it’s the parents. The mother’s only concern seems to be in keeping a man (any man), so when her son admits to staying out drinking and doing drugs all night, she just shrugs. The father’s only worries are finding himself and creating dialog. Well, that and making sure nobody ever votes for George Bush. They do live in Austin, TX after all.

You know, someone needs to teach the parents in “Boyhood” how to really be involved in the lives of their children, maybe someone like the Addams Family…

For me, one of the appeals of the Addams Family has always been that, once you remove the veneer of comedy/horror, you’ve basically got a family that truly loves another. And Gomez and Morticia, they’re real parents. They nurture and guide their children, they protect and punish them, and, as this clip proves, they’re absolutely vigilant about what information goes into their kids’ heads. In the fictional universe of the Addams, I’m sure there’s no copy of the Catechism lying around, but if there were, they’d probably have this passage highlighted:

“The fecundity of conjugal love cannot be reduced solely to the procreation of children, but must extend to their moral education and their spiritual formation. ‘The role of parents in education is of such importance that it is almost impossible to provide an adequate substitute.’ The right and the duty of parents to educate their children are primordial and inalienable. Parents must regard their children as children of God and respect them as human persons. Showing themselves obedient to the will of the Father in heaven, they educate their children to fulfill God's law.”

I actually liked “Boyhood.” I thought it communicated a deep truth about how our identities are formed, not by the big events in life, but in the small day to day situations we find ourselves in. But, yeah, the parents bugged me. Give me the Addams Family over them any day of the week.