Stepford Wives, The : Movie Review


Stepford Wives, The (2004)Another day another remake. It seems ridiculous that less than 30 years after the original film that The Stepford Wives is being given a Hollywood makeover for the new millennia.

It only further illustrates the lack of imagination that is prevalent in Hollywood today that Paul Rudnick’s screenplay completely fails to expand upon, or improve, the original version.

If it wasn’t for the inventive minds of writers like Sofia Coppola, Charlie Kaufman and Wes Anderson our multiplex screens would show precious little other than comic-book adaptations, action epics and remakes of 70’s films and TV shows from morning to night.

Matthew Broderick’s performance as the beleaguered, less successful, husband to Kidman’s burnt-out-but-still-feisty-high-powered-super-bitch TV network boss is mediocre. It’s almost 20 years since he made a name for himself playing Ferris Bueller. But maybe he should take more days off as he’s spent too many of the intervening years in bland roles and ultimately become a Stepford husband to his Sex and the City wife Sarah Jessica Parker.

With little substance to work with Nicole Kidman obviously found it difficult to deliver performance wise. That we know that she can produce better than this surely highlights the weakness of the script.

Even Jon Lovitz, an actor with impeccable comedic skills, could do virtually nothing to vitalise the film whilst Bette Middler, surely one of the most irritating actresses available for work, only makes things worse.

The Stepford Wives has a disjointed feel throughout and it’s neither exciting nor greatly interesting. Although director Frank Oz does manage to inject some thrills into the mix with a few sinister scenes it’s not nearly enough to save what looks more like a feature length episode of The Outer Limits than a multimillion-dollar film.

2 stars out of 5

Author : Kevin Stanley