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 | Housewife | Homosexual

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

Colour:

Colour

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:

Darien, Connecticut, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

At the beginning of the movie, when the "wives" are exercising, they do it to the song "1975", a reference to the date of the original The Stepford Wives (1975).

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When the family is driving to Stepford, Pete says "But why are we moving?". Kimberly can be clearly seen mouthing his line before saying "to Conneticut?"

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:

Featured in A Perfect World: The Making of 'The Stepford Wives' (2004) (V)

Soundtrack:

A Fifth of Beethoven

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.