The Stepford Wives

Release Date: June 11, 2004
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, thematic material and language
Directed by: Frank Oz
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Roger Bart, Glenn Close, Faith Hill, Bette Midler, Christopher Walken, Mike White, Lisa Masters, Jon Lovitz

Plot:
Stepford has a secret: all of the wives are way too perfect, and all of the husbands are way too happy. "The Stepford Wives," a comic re-imagining of the 1975 suspense classic, follows the tale that unfolds when a young couple moves from Manhattan to the upper-class suburb of Connecticut. Once there, they soon discover that the Stepford men are replacing their wives with compliant robots.

Review:
Remakes are continuously being made and for an obvious reason, the technology is better and the film, visually will look better. That is not saying that the quality of the film and storytelling is going to be better. A remake is not guaranteeing anything. This film is not a good one, but offers just a bit of good visuals and cinematography.

The film stars top name movie stars such as Nicole Kidman, Christopher Walken, Glenn Close, Bette Midler, Jon Lovitz and Matthew Broderick. With so many actors playing unique characters, one thing this film does do is develop them to a good extent. Kidman who plays Joanna Eberhard tops them all of with a powerful performance that didn't call for much, but an average one.

Every actor and actress has a different style as their character and is taken a bit by the original Stepford Wives. Bette Midler is a wild and rather quirky woman who is also disorganized. Glenn Close is the owner of Stepford along with Christopher Walken. Nicole Kidman is a successful president of a Television Network and tries ti spend as much time with her family as possible.

Matthew Broderick is lacking on the screen as Walter Kresby. In fact, he almost seems tiresome at times. While his character calls for not caring and being somewhat lazy, he doesn't leave anything for his character to be remembered for. Even when Broderick has a scene of intensity, it almost seems as a joke or if he is overacting it.

Director Frank Oz who is most famous for playing the voice of Yoda in the Star Wars films has a direction that is undetermined. Oz wants three genres in The Stepford Wives, comedy, horror and drama. He places comedy first in line and that is one of the films biggest problem because it misses in a lot of its humor.

This film also did not hold back from lengthy scenes and there are times when you feel a scene is running too long. The editing process is what could have prevented this, but then again the director gets the final say and Oz misfires here and this is something that might get the audience to stand up and leave.

The acting is there and Stepford Wives at times is entertaining, but after visualizing it as a whole, its not a good film. Writer Paul Rudnick teams up with Frank Oz for the second time. The first time being for the movie In and Out in 1997. With this script Rudnick is lacking a change of pace and of memorable elements to leave a lasting appeal of what the neighborhood has been doing to the women.

This film might be worth to some because Nicole Kidman looks incredibly beautiful and stunning all throughout the film. To do that, simply look at the movie stills and images of the film, instead of enduring what can be seen on home video instead. There is not enough here to give this remake of the 1975 original a recommendation.

The Stepford Wives is a film that seems to be confused. It tries to combine different styles of horror, comedy and drama, but it simply does not work. This film is simply average and there are more flaws than entertainment to be found. Director Frank Oz needs to improve his vision and the writer should have taken this back to the works. This is not a total loss because as a remake, it does a lot better than Dawn Of The Dead.