The Stepford Wives (2004 film)

The Stepford Wives is a 2004 American science fiction black comedy film directed by Frank Oz from a screenplay by Paul Rudnick, and stars Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler, Christopher Walken, Faith Hill, and Glenn Close. It is based on Ira Levin's 1972 novel of the same name and is the second feature-length adaptation of the novel, following the 1975 film of the same name. The film received generally negative reviews from the critics and was a box office failure, grossing $103 million worldwide on a $90 million budget.[2][3][4]

The Stepford Wives
Theatrical release poster
Directed byFrank Oz
Screenplay byPaul Rudnick
Based onThe Stepford Wives
by Ira Levin
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyRob Hahn
Edited byJay Rabinowitz
Music byDavid Arnold
Production
company
Distributed by
Release date
  • June 11, 2004 (2004-06-11) (United States)
Running time
93 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$90 million
Box office$103.3 million

Plot

Successful reality television executive producer Joanna Eberhart's career suddenly ends after a disillusioned reality show participant named Hank attempts a shootout. After Joanna suffers a mental breakdown, she and her family move from Manhattan to Stepford, a quiet Fairfield County, Connecticut, suburb. Husband Walter tries to walk out of their marriage, but Joanna appeases him by trying to fit in with the other Stepford wives.

Joanna befriends writer and recovering alcoholic Roberta "Bobbie" Markowitz and Roger Bannister, a flamboyant gay man who has moved to town with his long-time partner, Jerry. After the trio witness Sarah Sunderson violently dance and then collapse, Joanna, Bobbie, and Roger go to Sarah's home to check up on her. Sarah has left the door open and they hear her upstairs, ecstatically screaming during sex with her husband. As they scramble to sneak out, they find a remote control labeled SARAH, discovering a button that causes Sarah's breasts to enlarge and makes her walk backwards robotically.

Joanna and Bobbie sneak into the Men's Association to spy on the husbands. They discover a hall filled with family portraits, but Roger catches them and assures them that all is well. The next day, the pair discover Roger's flamboyant clothing, playbills, and photo of Orlando Bloom have all been discarded. Jerry tells them to meet him in the town hall and they see Roger, apparently running for State Senate, with a bland look and conformist personality. Joanna wants to leave and Walter agrees, saying that they will go the next day. Going into Walter's study, she discovers that all the Stepford wives were once working women in high-power positions.

The next day, Joanna visits Bobbie and she notices that her formerly messy house is spotless. Now blending in with the other Stepford wives, Bobbie says that she is a whole new person and the most important thing is her cookbook. While telling Joanna that she can help her change, Bobbie puts her hand over the stove's burner without even noticing.

Returning to the Men's Association, Joanna finds that in her family picture, she now resembles a Stepford wife. Men's Association's leader Mike shows how they insert nanochips into their wives' brains to make them Stepford wives. The men corner the Eberharts and force them toward the transformation room, but Joanna asks if the new wives really mean it when they tell their husbands that they love them. The next scene shows the Stepford wives, including Joanna, now blonde and dressed in Sunday dresses, at the grocery store.

With Joanna and Walter as special guests, Stepford hosts a formal ball. During the festivities, Joanna distracts Mike and entices him into the garden, while Walter slips away to the transformation room, where he destroys the software that programs the women. At the ball, the wives corner their husbands and reveal that Joanna never received the microchip implant. Mike threatens Walter, but Joanna decapitates him with a candlestick, exposing him as a robot. Mike's wife Claire explains that she created Stepford because she, too, was a bitter, career-minded woman. When she discovered Mike's affair with her research assistant, she murdered them in a jealous rage. Claire then electrocutes herself by kissing Mike's severed robotic head.

Six months later, in an interview with Larry King, Roger and Bobbie explain that the Stepford husbands are being retrained to become better people. The closing scene reveals that the wives now take over Stepford.

Cast

Production

John Cusack was originally cast as Walter and his sister Joan Cusack was originally cast as Bobbie. Joan Cusack had previously appeared in two other films written by Rudnick - Addams Family Values and In & Out, the latter also directed by Frank Oz, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. They both had to drop out of the film only weeks before filming started, to be with their father, Dick Cusack, who was dying.[5]

Reportedly, there were problems on-set between Oz and stars Nicole Kidman, Bette Midler, Christopher Walken, Glenn Close and Roger Bart. In a 2003 interview, Oz stated "Tension on the set? Absolutely! In every movie I do, there's tension. That's the whole point. And working people hard, that's exactly what they expect me to do... Bette has been under a lot of stress lately... She made the mistake of bringing her stress on the set."[6]

The film was originally conceived as a darkly satirical piece, with an ending closer to the finale of the original, but negative results from test screenings caused Paramount to commission numerous rounds of reshoots,[7] which significantly altered the tone of the film, and gave it a new ending.[8]

In a 2007 interview with Ain't It Cool News, Oz's take on the film was "I had too much money, and I was too responsible and concerned for Paramount. I was too concerned for the producers. And I didn't follow my instincts."[9]

In a 2005 interview, Matthew Broderick stated, "Making that film wasn't enjoyable. It was nobody's fault, but my part was not terribly interesting... It was not a thrilling film. I would hate it if it were my last."[10]

The majority of the film was shot in Darien, New Canaan, and Norwalk, Connecticut.[11][12]

Reception

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, The Stepford Wives holds an approval rating of 26%, based on 175 reviews with an average rating of 4.70/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "In exchanging the chilling satire of the original into mindless camp, this remake has itself become Stepford-ized."[13]

Pete Travers of Rolling Stone said that the on-set complications of the film "can't compare to the mess onscreen."[14] Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly said, "The remake is, in fact, marooned in a swamp of camp, inconsequentiality."[15] A. O. Scott of The New York Times said, "the movie never lives up to its satiric potential, collapsing at the end into incoherence and wishy-washy, have-it-all sentimentality."[16]

Some critics were more receptive to the film. Roger Ebert called Paul Rudnick's screenplay "rich with zingers" and gave the film three stars.[17] However, in the "Worst Movies of 2004" episode of At the Movies with Ebert and Roeper, he admitted that, while he gave the film "thumbs up", it wouldn't be "the first movie that [he] would defend."

The film's teaser won several Golden Trailer Awards, in the categories of "Summer 2004 Blockbuster" and "Most Original", as well as "Best of Show".[18]

Box office

The U.S. opening weekend's gross was a respectable $21,406,781 but sales fell off quickly. That weekend represented over a third of the final domestic gross of $59,484,742.[2] The film grossed $42,428,452 internationally. Its production budget was an estimated $100,000,000, plus a further $46,000,000 for marketing and distribution costs.[3]

References
  1. "The Stepford Wives (2004)". American Film Institute. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  2. "The Stepford Wives (2004)". Box Office Mojo. April 4, 2018.
  3. "The Stepford Wives (2004)". The Numbers. Retrieved September 20, 2010.
  4. "50 Top Grossing Movies, 2004". History. Archived from the original on March 4, 2009.
  5. "'Stepford' out of Cusacks". 2 May 2003.
  6. World Entertainment News Network (October 2, 2003). "Frank Oz's Tense Remake". Contactmusic.com. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  7. "The Stepford Wives (2004): Lost at Least $80 Million".
  8. "Stepword Wives filming troubles - Bill Clinton's memoir - Body in the Pickett Mansion - Nymag".
  9. Merrick (August 7, 2007). "Capone With Frank Oz About DEATH AT A FUNERAL, What Went Wrong On STEPFORD, And (Of Course) Yoda!!". Ain't It Cool News. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  10. WENN (December 22, 2005). "Broderick Hated Stepford Wives Flop". Contactmusic.com. Retrieved April 28, 2015.
  11. Mazzola, Caitlin; Ryan, Lidia (February 16, 2015). "Movies filmed in Connecticut". Connecticut Post. Hearst Media Services. Retrieved April 28, 2015.
  12. Sherrod, Pamela (July 25, 2004). "Bringing the Stepford look into your home". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved April 28, 2015.
  13. "The Stepford Wives (2004)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
  14. Travers, Peter (June 10, 2004). "The Stepford Wives". Rolling Stone. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  15. Schwarzbaum, Lisa (June 9, 2004). "The Stepford Wives". Entertainment Weekly. Time. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  16. Scott, A.O. (June 11, 2004). "FILM REVIEW; Married to a Machine". The New York Times. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  17. "The Stepford Wives". RogerEbert.com. Ebert Digital LLC. June 11, 2004. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  18. "5th Annual Golden Trailer Awards". Golden Trailer Awards. Archived from the original on June 24, 2008. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.