The Stepford Wives (2004)

User Rating:

5.1/10   

Director:

Frank Oz

Writers (WGA):

Ira Levin (book)
Paul Rudnick (screenplay)

Release Date:

11 June 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Fantasy | Thriller

Tagline:

Make one.

Plot:

What does it take to become a Stepford wife, a woman perfect beyond belief? Ask the Stepford husbands, who've created this high-tech terrifying little town, in a very modern comedy-thriller.

Plot Keywords:

Community | Writer | Connecticut | Battle Of The Sexes | Decapitation

Awards:

3 wins

Cast

Nicole Kidman	...	Joanna Eberhart
Matthew Broderick	...	Walter Kresby
Bette Midler	...	Bobbie Markowitz
Glenn Close	...	Claire Wellington
Christopher Walken	...	Mike Wellington
Roger Bart	...	Roger Bannister
David Marshall Grant	...	Jerry Harmon
Jon Lovitz	...	Dave Markowitz
Dylan Hartigan	...	Pete Kresby
Fallon Brooking	...	Kimberly Kresby
Faith Hill	...	Sarah Sunderson
Matt Malloy	...	Herb Sunderson
Kate Shindle	...	Beth Peters
Tom Riis Farrell	...	Stan Peters
Lorri Bagley	...	Charmaine Van Sant

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sexual content, thematic material and language.

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Switzerland:12 (canton of Zurich) | Malaysia:18PL | Portugal:M/12 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #40783) | Iceland:L | South Korea:15 | Argentina:Atp | Australia:M | Brazil:12 | Canada:PG | Chile:14 | Finland:K-7 | Germany:12 | Ireland:15PG (original rating) | Ireland:15 (video rating) | Netherlands:12 | Peru:14 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:NC-16 (original rating) | Singapore:PG (edited for re-rating) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | UK:12A

Filming Locations:

Bedminster, New Jersey, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Several scenes and some sub-plots were deleted and/or added to the film based on audience test reactions: - The scene where Faith Hill's character breaks down at the square dance ran a few seconds longer. - There was originally a scene of Walter contemplating whether or not he should go through with turning Joanna into a Stepford Wife, and the other husbands try to convince him that she'll be happy that way. - Filmed but deleted was an extravagant extended version of the scene between Bobbie and Joanna when Joanna finds out that Bobbie has been turned into a Stepford Wife. After Bobbie tells Joanna all of her shortcomings, Joanna stabs Bobbie above the breast with a butcher knife. Bobbie goes haywire, and sets about performing a number of household tasks in the manner of the old Tex Avery cartoons, with Bobbie's finger turning into a vacuum cleaner, her tongue into a squeegee and her head exploding off of her shoulders while demonstrating what an orgasm is like for a Stepford Wife. The scene concludes with Bobbie opening her breasts to reveal a built-in cooler and offering Joanna a beer. It was the biggest FX sequence in the film, but was cut out despite great expense and months of work by computer artists. This was done because preview audiences felt it was "too much". It can be found as a deleted scene on the DVD. - An extended scene of Walter in the basement of the men's club deactivating the Stepford program, and displays indicate that the women's real brains have been transplanted into robot bodies. At the end of the sequence Faith Hill's character shoots her hand out of her arm on a long robotic tether and holds her husband up in the air. - The original ending of the movie was an extension of the scene where Glenn Close kisses Christopher Walken's head. When she kisses it, the electricity throws Close up in the air, where she levitates, as in the old Tex Avery cartoons, and her shoes explode off of her feet and fly up against a wall and all of her hair stands on end. She falls down next to Walken's head, which briefly comes alive and croaks, "Good night. Thank you for visiting Stepford," while Joanna and Walter look on and the camera pulls back for the fade-out.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Roger, Bobbie and Joanna are at the bottom of the stairs in Sarah's house, their positions change between scenes.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Helen Devlin: Ladies and gentlemen, I would now like to introduce a legend in our industry. She's the most successful president in the history of our network and for the past five years has kept us at the very top of the ratings.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in The Breastford Wives (2007) (V)

Soundtrack:

The Marines' Hymn

What an awful flop!

I very rarely write comments here about films I didn't enjoy but this is different. This film boasts a cast that will be pulling people in cinemas. My advice is: don't bother. It's just the most boring, predictable, badly planned and executed piece of celluloid I've ever seen. It's as if Frank Oz had a good idea but got bored half-way through realising it. I haven't seen the original but surely the actors who got involved in this read the script of the remake? They can't have based their participation on the Seventies film, surely. Because the 2004 remake is full of awful cliches, bad jokes (OK, there are a couple of good lines but that's about it) and it is so empty of ideas that it makes you want to shout to the screen. If the actors playing in this film were unknowns there is NO WAY anyone would have gone to see it. It's just a parade of famous names (some good actors, some average) that sleepwalk through a dreadful script. It can't even become a cult classic - it's THAT average. 1/10 for me and that's being lenient.