*** Official THE STEPFORD WIVES Review Thread

Iver · 06-08-2004, 02:34 AM

Frank Oz's new take on the 1975 film The Stepford Wives will be released this coming Friday.

I caught a pre-release screening this evening.

Oz takes a campy approach, but camp has to be a little more over-the-top than this to really work well. I'd give this movie two stars on a scale of zero to four.

Most people over 40, and probably even quite a few younger than that (this was done as a TV movie in the interim), will be familiar with the basic Stepford Wives plot. Heck, it's so familiar that "Stepford Wife" has become a widely-used synonym for a docile, sex kitteny, Martha Stewartesque wife.

Oz plays against the audiences expectations to put a spin on the plot. He also adds gay elements, reality TV shows, and a few other things that were probably absent, or at least not terribly prominent, in the 1975 version.

The movie opens with some really wild stuff, including a guy who shoots somebody as a result of his experience on a TV show. Oh, wait, that really happenned.

Glen Close gives a fine performance as the main Stepford Wife. Nicole Kidman plays the next potential victim of the evil Stepford plot. Matthew Broderick plays her basically decent-but-misguided husband. Bette Midler pretty much plays herself as a brassy broad and the one women who has managed, for a lengthy period of time, to resist the Stepford treatment.

Christopher Walken gives a somewhat stiff, almost mechanical performance, which is not totally inappropriate to his role (he's in charge of all those robot-like wives, after all!).

Robert Crawford · 06-08-2004, 03:43 AM

This thread is now the Official Review Thread for "The Stepford Wives". Please post all HTF member reviews in this thread.

Any other comments, links to other reviews, or discussion items will be deleted from this thread without warning!

If you need to discuss those type of issues then I have designated an Official Discussion Thread.

Crawdaddy

Dave Hackman · 06-13-2004, 12:37 AM

Warning stay away, this isn't even good eye candy. I tried to like this but it was filmed like a TV show. It just stopped faded away and picked up in another location. I don't think Broderick was a good choice for the husband, maybe a young funny Tom Hanks would have been better but with this script it wouldn't matter. Christopher Walken is horrible and is probably double the age of all the Stepford members. These guys must all be gay because they spent every moment with one another at their club instead of with the women they created. The women they created wore too many clothes; I would have enjoyed some nudity thank you. Nicole Kidman was excellent and I liked the chemistry she had with Bette Midler and Roger Bart. I wish they did more with this trio. I can't imagine what anyone would like to revisit upon a second viewing.

D-

Anthony Hom · 06-14-2004, 04:05 PM

The way the dialogue and sets played out, I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to sell this to Broadway, maybe like Little Shop of Horrors. They could call it Oh! Stepford.

Sam Favate · 06-14-2004, 06:55 PM

While the movie had it satirical moments, there are such gaping plot holes in the film that it becomes too hard to enjoy it.

The most obvious is that

Spoiler:

Sorry, but I can't really recommend the film -- despite some genuinely good satire -- because if the filmmakers don't care enough to at least have the movie make sense, why should I care about it at all?

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Wayne A. Pflughaupt · 06-15-2004, 08:51 PM

A solid C. It could have come in as a B, except for the “plot spin” Iver mentioned – totally idiotic and not believable. Couldn’t leave the original well enough alone – no, once again they have to retread that tired, tired, [b]tired[/i] Hollywood theme of the women coming out on top and the men looking like idiots. Not to mention, the homosexual element felt forced and completely out of place.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

Wayne A. Pflughaupt · 06-15-2004, 08:51 PM

A solid C. It could have come in as a B, except for the “plot spin” Iver mentioned – totally idiotic and not believable. Couldn’t leave the original well enough alone – no, once again they have to retread that tired, tired, [b]tired[/i] Hollywood theme of the women coming out on top and the men looking like idiots. Not to mention, the homosexual element felt forced and completely out of place.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

George Banks · 06-16-2004, 12:53 PM

Okay gang...I had the chance to work on this picture and all I can say is that ALOT and I mean ALOT of visual effects sequences were cut out of the movie that would have (or not) made the story better.

That scene in the kitchen between Nicole Kidman and Bette Mitler there was a BIG visual effects sequence in there which, for the exception of one sequence, was totally cut.Not to mention other parts throughout the movie.

Outside of dvd extras, alot of people don't get the chance to see just how much work goes into making a movie and to see Stepford Wives knowing all the work that was put into it, it was painful to watch.

Hopefully all fo the visual effects work will make it in the dvd.

George Banks · 06-16-2004, 12:53 PM

Okay gang...I had the chance to work on this picture and all I can say is that ALOT and I mean ALOT of visual effects sequences were cut out of the movie that would have (or not) made the story better.

That scene in the kitchen between Nicole Kidman and Bette Mitler there was a BIG visual effects sequence in there which, for the exception of one sequence, was totally cut.Not to mention other parts throughout the movie.

Outside of dvd extras, alot of people don't get the chance to see just how much work goes into making a movie and to see Stepford Wives knowing all the work that was put into it, it was painful to watch.

Hopefully all fo the visual effects work will make it in the dvd.

Patrick Sun · 06-20-2004, 09:27 AM

I felt like a Stepford viewer. Why couldn't I just leave the theater as this movie was unfolding before my very eyes? For me, the movie was completely lackluster. There was no juice to it at all. Couple that with a mismatched explanation of the inner-workings of the town of Stepford that would have better served a Scooby-Doo movie, even the logic the film tried to imply simply doesn't add up, so this was a missed opportunity, and it felt like a story that went from A to C, without having a foundation of A to B and then B to C to support it.

I give it 1.5 stars, or a grade of D+.