Movie Review: The Stepford Wives

The Stepford Wives

It's been many years since I've seen the original version of The Stepford Wives (theatrically released in 1975, I eventually saw it on television). I remember it as being less a horror film onscreen than in its aftermath as you thought about everything that had happened and the implications. Certainly, the film had horror potential it never reached, and it might be hoped that a remake - and all of the special effects capabilities we've learned since the original - could bring that horror to the big screen. Alas, the filmmakers of new The Stepford Wives decided to turn it into a "dark comedy." Even more unfortunately, the movie doesn't manage that goal, either.

The Stepford Wives tells the story of the small town of Stepford, Connecticut where all of the men are manly and all of the women happily wait on their husbands hand and foot. Joanna (Nicole Kidman) is a high-powered network executive who has a nervous breakdown after five years of her stressful responsibilities. Her husband, Walter Kresby (Matthew Broderick) moves the family to peaceful Stepford as a way to give Joanna a more relaxing setting in which to recuperate. But Joanna senses something wrong with the women there and, despite admonitions from Walter, teams up with a couple of other "normal" residents to see just what's going on. Along with famed author Bobbie Markowitz (Bette Midler) and flamboyant architect Roger Bannister (Roger Bart), Joanna slowly begins to discover the awful secret behind the seemingly ideal lives people lead in Stepford.

The man behind both the Stepford Men's Club and that awful secret is Mike Wellington (Christopher Walken). He and his perfect wife, Claire (Glenn Close), are widely seen as the leading citizens of Stepford. When Mike gets Walter, Bobbie's husband, Dave (John Lovitz), and Roger's partner to join the Men's Club, it's not long before still more people are threatened with the fate of becoming "perfect."

The sets and costumes for The Stepford Wives are beautiful, and unquestionably lend ambiance to the movie itself. Nicole Kidman is good as is Christopher Walken; Bette Midler is fine; and Matthew Broderick and John Lovitz are okay, too. Glenn Close is a stand-out as an over-the-top society matron with a smiling optimism that never flags no matter the situation with which she's confronted. But the movie isn't funny. It's ridiculous. And it isn't scary, either. It's just...silly. And while silly can be great fun (come on, who didn't laugh out loud at There's Something About Mary?), this kind of silly is just...stupid. The script is stilted and entirely unsurprising (one update from the original is the addition of a gay couple which is actually one of the few things that works in the movie). What Nicole Kidman, Glenn Close, and Christopher Walken are doing in a movie like this is beyond me.

POLITICAL NOTES: There's a real statement made here about men who feel inadequate because they're married to women who outperform them in virtually every way. Kidman's character points out that these men aren't lesser creatures because of that fact, but rather are lucky to have the women that they do. But the stereotypes are held up for admiration at the same time they're ridiculed, and it seems to me that in both extremes there are downfalls.

FAMILY SUITABILITY: The Stepford Wives is rated PG-13 for "sexual content, thematic material, and language." There are a couple of scenes that aren't suitable for kids under 12 or so, but taken as a whole the movie is fairly safe for children. There's little for them to enjoy, though, as the special effects are few and far between, the story is made dull by its lackluster script, and there's not much action onscreen, either. The truth is that I don't really recommend this movie for anyone of any age.