Review: The Stepford Wives
June 11, 2004; Regal Falmouth #5
* * * ¼ (out of 4)
In a 21st century consumed in liberalism and conservative backlash, what makes a film like The Stepford Wives work is the ability of everyone involved to embrace the absolute absurdity of the idea. It’s clear this could never and would never work – and no one would want to try. Any attempt at this would be met with outrage from every human rights group known to man for crimes against racial, gender, religious, and sexual equality. However, when you consider the ridiculousness of the situation and create a dark comedy around it, you’ve got a good chance at getting to audiences by making them laugh at the stupidity of bigotry.
Joanna Eberhard (Nicole Kidman), a high-powered Manhattan TV executive, suffers a massive nervous breakdown when the Board of Directors fires her from the network that she started. To allow her to recuperate and to begin healing familial wounds, she and her husband Walter (Matthew Broderick) pick up their two kids and head to quiet, suburban Stepford, Connecticut, hoping the change from the city will be just what they both need. Immediately upon arrival, Joanna begins to notice oddities abound; the men spend all their time at the Stepford Men’s Association under the leadership of Mike (Christopher Walken), and the women, when they’re not cleaning house or in the kitchen, spend the days at the Simply Stepford Day Spa under the watchful eye of Mike’s wife Claire (Glenn Close). Soon Joanna and her two best friends, the other two newcomers to the Stepford way of life, begin to see patterns and odd behavior from the women in town. It seems as though they exist only to serve their husbands. Joanna, Bobbie (Bette Midler), and Roger (Roger Bart) don’t have long to figure out what’s going on in the small community before the rest of Stepford gets their hands on them, as well.
Absurdity. It’s key here. While Kidman, Midler, and Bart spend the entire movie in horrified amazement outside of the circle, anyone within the Stepford circle fully commit to making this hell on earth seem completely real – even when it’s entirely impossible. All the men – geeks and nerds anywhere else in the world – play their parts as geeks and nerds trying to not be geeks and nerds. The women do a decent job of playing on the mechanical physicality while making sure with behavior and speech that no one could ever find this lifestyle truly appealing.
Everyone fits where they need to here. Walken and Close are marvelously creepy as the ‘parents’ of the community. Broderick, having been relatively absent from the screen in the last few years, comes back with a much more adult feel than he’s ever had before. The standouts in this film come via the three outcasts. Kidman’s Joanna plays mostly on sheer appalled terror, which creates some very worthwhile reactions. Midler, as a best-selling feminist author, provides some great one-liners and also a fantastic switch in personalities, which sets Joanna off even more as she realizes that she will be next. Roger Bart steals the show by playing the walking gay stereotype that he perfected onstage as Carmen Ghia in The Producers. His Roger also offers an interesting twist that the original The Stepford Wives - turning one of the men in a homosexual relationship into the perfect “Stepford Wife.”
Frank Oz as a director has been pretty lucky. He tends to get an amazing cast that doesn’t seem like it would need much in the way of direction, so he can focus more on the visual picture. His image of Stepford is perfect – a man’s paradise, basically a town-sized country club. He gives the Men’s Association a beautifully sinister and evil feel, something that makes the end twist that much better. More than anything else, Oz presents the story in the best way possible to preserve the comedy without it getting lost in the craziness of the story he’s telling.
The Stepford Wives definitely proved better than expected, and great performances delivered by the people we’ve come to expect them from are right on target. The twist at the end is clever and unexpected and makes for a good end to a good time at the movies.
June 11, 2004; Regal Falmouth #5
* * * ¼ (out of 4)
In a 21st century consumed in liberalism and conservative backlash, what makes a film like The Stepford Wives work is the ability of everyone involved to embrace the absolute absurdity of the idea. It’s clear this could never and would never work – and no one would want to try. Any attempt at this would be met with outrage from every human rights group known to man for crimes against racial, gender, religious, and sexual equality. However, when you consider the ridiculousness of the situation and create a dark comedy around it, you’ve got a good chance at getting to audiences by making them laugh at the stupidity of bigotry.
Joanna Eberhard (Nicole Kidman), a high-powered Manhattan TV executive, suffers a massive nervous breakdown when the Board of Directors fires her from the network that she started. To allow her to recuperate and to begin healing familial wounds, she and her husband Walter (Matthew Broderick) pick up their two kids and head to quiet, suburban Stepford, Connecticut, hoping the change from the city will be just what they both need. Immediately upon arrival, Joanna begins to notice oddities abound; the men spend all their time at the Stepford Men’s Association under the leadership of Mike (Christopher Walken), and the women, when they’re not cleaning house or in the kitchen, spend the days at the Simply Stepford Day Spa under the watchful eye of Mike’s wife Claire (Glenn Close). Soon Joanna and her two best friends, the other two newcomers to the Stepford way of life, begin to see patterns and odd behavior from the women in town. It seems as though they exist only to serve their husbands. Joanna, Bobbie (Bette Midler), and Roger (Roger Bart) don’t have long to figure out what’s going on in the small community before the rest of Stepford gets their hands on them, as well.
Absurdity. It’s key here. While Kidman, Midler, and Bart spend the entire movie in horrified amazement outside of the circle, anyone within the Stepford circle fully commit to making this hell on earth seem completely real – even when it’s entirely impossible. All the men – geeks and nerds anywhere else in the world – play their parts as geeks and nerds trying to not be geeks and nerds. The women do a decent job of playing on the mechanical physicality while making sure with behavior and speech that no one could ever find this lifestyle truly appealing.
Everyone fits where they need to here. Walken and Close are marvelously creepy as the ‘parents’ of the community. Broderick, having been relatively absent from the screen in the last few years, comes back with a much more adult feel than he’s ever had before. The standouts in this film come via the three outcasts. Kidman’s Joanna plays mostly on sheer appalled terror, which creates some very worthwhile reactions. Midler, as a best-selling feminist author, provides some great one-liners and also a fantastic switch in personalities, which sets Joanna off even more as she realizes that she will be next. Roger Bart steals the show by playing the walking gay stereotype that he perfected onstage as Carmen Ghia in The Producers. His Roger also offers an interesting twist that the original The Stepford Wives - turning one of the men in a homosexual relationship into the perfect “Stepford Wife.”
Frank Oz as a director has been pretty lucky. He tends to get an amazing cast that doesn’t seem like it would need much in the way of direction, so he can focus more on the visual picture. His image of Stepford is perfect – a man’s paradise, basically a town-sized country club. He gives the Men’s Association a beautifully sinister and evil feel, something that makes the end twist that much better. More than anything else, Oz presents the story in the best way possible to preserve the comedy without it getting lost in the craziness of the story he’s telling.
The Stepford Wives definitely proved better than expected, and great performances delivered by the people we’ve come to expect them from are right on target. The twist at the end is clever and unexpected and makes for a good end to a good time at the movies.
posted by Matt S. at
10:59 AM
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