Not perfect, but still funny
The original 1974 version of TSW was meant to be a sort of horror flick, but it's 2004 counterpart starring Nicole Kidman and Matthew Broderick is meant to be more of a comedy (I mean, c'mon- a horror flick with Bette Midler? I ask you). Joanna (Kidman) is a high powered TV exec who specializes in over-the-top reality shows, when a crazed immasculated ex-show participant takes a few shots (literally) at her. The TV station doesn't want to risk bad publicity, so Joanna is promptly fired. Her husband Walter (Broderick) moves Joanna and the family to Stepford, a picturesque town in Connecticut. But Joanna gets weird vibes from the local wives from day one. They all wear sun dresses with cleavage cinched up to their eyeballs and big sun hats. Their book club discussions revolve around a Christmas decorating annual, and all the wives adore their geeky, balding or overweight husbands. When Joanna runs into Bobbi (Midler), a feminist writer, she is relieved. But it's short lived as more and more eerie things pop up, including Bobbi's sudden transformation into a SW, and Walter being seduced by the Boy's Club atmosphere headed up by Mike (Christopher Walken).

People complain that this isn't the same movie as the original, and they're right. The ending is different (so much more "girl power" than the original), and the whole robot/human transformation goes unexplained. But, if you're going for the laughs, then you won't be disappointed, especially with Joanna and Bobbi's gay friend Roger (who exclaims, when being allowed into the Stepford men's secret room with a flashlight, "I feel like Nancy Drew in the Mystery of the Mid-Life Crisis!"). If you're still unsure if this newer version of TSW is for you, go to a matinee show. But honestly, my sister and I laughed all the way through.

Walter finds it intriguing, but Joanna finds it creepy. She makes fast friends with author Roberta Markowitz (Bette Midler) and Roger Bannister (Roger Bart), new residents in Stepford. They skulk around trying to find what is making all the Stepford wives so peachy keen.

Christopher Walken plays Mike Wellington, the Mayor of Stepford and president of the Men's Association - a testosterone-filled play-zone for middle-aged men with pot-bellies and comb-overs who long to bond without the baggage of whiny wives, only go go home to have a tidy house, home-cooked meals and a sexy blond wife who loves doin' the "grown-up" every single day. As always, Walken is both debonair and creepy.

The film is ultimately more upbeat than the original it pays homage to, making the tongue-in-cheek moments that much more enjoyable. Despite the improbable tale, new technical advances make some of the film more believable than it was in the 1975 version when simple computers were the size of gymnasiums.

Nicole Kidman is fantastic and while the film is total fantasy, her character is ultimately ultra-believable. The film is full of modern day spoofs and tongue-in-cheek moments, a much different take than the 1975 original which was low on the funny and heavy on the freaky.

Joanna (Nicole Kidman) is an executive who runs a television network. She seems to be responsible for some of the big reality shows that are being aired (we meet her as she is announcing several new shows that take "reality tv" to a ridiculous level). When one of the reality shows backfires in a public way, Joanna is fired from her job and suffers and emotional breakdown. It is to help Joanna and to begin a new life that her husband, Walter (Matthew Broderick) moves the family from the big city up to Connecticut to a town called Stepford.

Stepford seems like the perfect town. Everyone is pleasant, if a little too perky and perfect. Joanna and Walter are welcome to the community by Claire (Glenn Close). Claire seems to be the leader of the Stepford women's group and the town seems to be organized around the Men's Club and the Women's Day Spa. Walter is welcomed right into the Men's Club and he feels at home. Joanna, on the other hand, is very skeptical because all the women seem like they are exaggerations and someone else's idealizations. For example, the women all exercise wearing dresses because they wouldn't want their husbands to see them wearing black sweatsuits and have stringy hair (which was exactly what Joanna was wearing at the time). Joanna befriends Bobbie (Bette Midler) and Roger (Roger Bart), the only other two women who are not in the "Stepford" mold. A note about Roger: Roger is a gay man, but because he fits the stereotype so well of what a gay man is, he counts in Stepford as "one of the girls". Together, the three of them try to find out what is going on in Stepford and why the women are all so strange (and why one of them seemed to spark at the ears during a dance). Why are all the women such male fantasies and the men remain their geeky selves?

This 2004 adaptation of "The Stepford Wives" is more of a comedy than the horror leanings that the original is said to have had (I admit, I have not seen the original film, nor have I read the book). Since I cannot compare the film to either the novel or the original film, I can only work with what I am given on screen. The first half of the movie is fairly effective and interesting as the world of Stepford is being set up. The problem lies in the fact that the second half of the movie may or may not have contradicted information given in the first half. Something is going on with the women in Stepford, that is clear. The question is: What is going on with the women in Stepford. The term "Stepford Wives" is such a part of the Americal cultural lexicon that many people have an idea of what a Stepford Wife is, but the film never quite makes the connection. It sets up one idea, then gives us another idea, but in the end the film does not answer the question as to what exactly a Stepford Wife is. I am trying not to give away a spoiler, though the film's trailer gives away much of the twist of the movie, so the most I can say is that "The Stepford Wives" as a film does not seem to know exactly what a Stepford Wife is at the most technical level.

It is my confusion with what the premise of the film ultimately is (and thus what the ending means) that is leading to my growing dissatisfaction with "The Stepford Wives" as a movie. I enjoyed my time in the theatre watching this movie, and it is pleasant enough, but the inconsistency of the plot is enough to knock the film down a couple of notches.

-Joe Sherry

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