Ira Levin's best-selling novel about a town where great wives aren't born but made gets a second screen adaptation in this darkly satirical comedy drama. Joanna Eberhart (Nicole Kidman) is a successful television executive until one day her career hits the glass ceiling and crashes to the ground. Looking to take some time off to start over, Joanna and her husband, Walter Kresby (Matthew Broderick), pull up stakes and move to the peaceful suburban community of Stepford. Walter takes to his new
environment with real enthusiasm and joins the local men's organization, headed by one Mike Wellington. Joanna, on the other hand, finds that Stepford is just a bit too quiet and well-groomed for her taste, and is taken aback by the aggressively cheerful and servile attitude of Mike's wife, Claire (Glenn Close), and the other women of the community. A notable exception is Bobbi Markowitz (Bette Midler), a happily misanthropic writer who revels in her lack of enthusiasm for housework or exercise. Joanna and Bobbi become fast friends, but as they look closer at the all-too-perfect surfaces of Stepford and its female inhabitants, they slowly discover a terrible secret lurking beneath. Also featuring Faith Hill, Jon Lovitz, and Roger Bart, The Stepford Wives was previously adapted for the screen in 1975, with Katherine Ross in the lead; that version spawned three made-for-TV sequels. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
To paraphrase Paul Rudnick's Premiere magazine movie-critic alter ego, Libby Gelman-Waxner: It's flat, cold, fork-resistant and tasteless, if you ask me.
It has a wonderfully wounding malice directed at both the Stepford, Conn., contingent of Energizer Bunny wives and the New Yorkers who have just moved in.
As comedies go, it's actually fairly funny, albeit in a light, superficial way which either hides or exposes the fact that the plot is a thick tangle of mutual contradictions.
Weird film. Creepy how they controlled them like that and it was a great fictional story.
June 23, 2011
Bethany Murphy
Super Reviewer
The 1975 version is much better, but this version really surprised me. I had low expectations, but overall I enjoyed it. It's silly and cheesy in some parts, but it still has enough of the creepy elements to keep the audience interested. I prefer the dark mood of the old version more, but I thought the satire in this
film was good. A different interpretation of the story is all. A good adaptation, overall. Very funny, i recommend it.
No quotes approved yet for The Stepford Wives. Logged in users can submit quotes.
Submit a Quote from 'The Stepford Wives'
A quote can be a single line from one character or a memorable dialog between several characters. Please make your quotes accurate. Quotes will be submitted for approval by the RT staff.
Example:
Luke: Alright. I'll give it a try. Yoda: No. Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.
Top Critic
