The Stepford wives

Year of release : 2004

 

Run time : 1h33min

 

Genre : Sci Fi / Comedy / Thriller

 

Cast : Nicole Kidman , Bette Midler , Matthew Broderick , Glenn Close, Christopher Walken, Faith Hill

 

 

The movie is the 2nd adaptation of the 1972 novel of the same name by Ira Levin, and a remake of the 1975 movie of the same name.

A couple moves to Stepford, Connecticut, after the wife has a nervous breakdown after she was fired from her job,as a man tried to kill her and killed his wife and all her s*x partners involved in a show she created.

 

Everything seems too perfect in Stepford, the wives are all beautiful,blonde and stupid,care about ridiculous things,are almost slaves to their nerdy, unattractive husbands.

 

Joanna,the lead, befriends two funny characters who soon after, turn into the same brainwashed creatures that walk at the arm of the Stepford men.

 

The movie starts well, due to how Nicole Kidman acts, the situations she is in; it was funny (which is weird, considering the movie was meant to be a horror). Probably exactly at the part they cut and switch (as the screen test audiences didn't like the ending), the movie starts to lose me.

The irony is, the nerdy, ugly men married to beautiful, successful women, are the ones who are not happy with the women being better than them, and instead of looking at themselves,trying to better themselves, or just divorce them, if they were unhappy, they decide to "change" the women.

SPOILERS No matter how much I tried, I couldn't wrap my mind around this concept, as it doesn't make any sense, these men do not love these women,not even selfishly, they despise them, as to bring them to Stepford is to sign their death sentence. They bring them there to k1ll them and replace them with robots. Thing they changed due to the audience's negative reaction. END OF SPOILERS

The place was heavenly, I loved the houses, inside and out, the spring vibe. The women's attire was classy and beautiful.

The acting was top notch,Nicole Kidman and Glenn Close are always a win.

The soundtrack was good, it had these eerie beautiful choirs.

The visual effects were good.

 

What I didn’t like—they couldn’t decide if they are robots or just brainwashed. The whole movie they kept on saying they were robots, they have remote controls with their names on it, we even have a scene with a woman placing a card in her mouth and getting out 20 dollars in one dollar bills - that’s a robot ! Bobbie puts her hand on the fire and can’t feel it, there’s also a deleted scene with her in which her finger turns into a mixer.

 

The movie received negative reviews, and was a box office flop, grossing 103.3 million dollars against a budget of 100 million.

Cinema Score audiences graded the movie a C+.

John Cusack and Joan Cusack were both cast as Walter and Bobbie, but dropped, when their father got sick and dying.

Due to negative results of test screenings the ending of the movie was re-shot, as it was supposed to end as the original, with our lead replaced. This also explains why the movie made no sense anymore.

 

Rating : Could have been a contender !