The Stepford Wives (2004)

Prior to watching the 2004 release of The Stepford Wives starring Nicole Kidman and Matthew Broderick, I had no idea what a Stepford Wife was. Of course I'd heard the term numerous times in reference to seemingly perfect women, but I didn't know where the term came from or why it was used so disparagingly. I was aware that the original story came from a 1972 novel by Ira Levin and that there had been a previous big-screen adaptation, but I never read the book or saw the 1975 film version. So I went into the 2004 Frank Oz version without any preconceived notions at all and nothing to compare this movie to.

Kidman plays a high-powered, successful TV exec named Joanna Eberhart who suddenly gets fired from her job as head of a network. She has never failed at anything before in her life, and she doesn't handle this setback very well. In fact, Joanna has a nervous breakdown that convinces her husband Walter (Broderick) to move Joanna and their two children out of Manhattan and into the beautiful Connecticut town of Stepford.

Stepford is an exclusive area that consists of huge mansions, immaculately manicured lawns, and friendly neighbors that go out of their way to make Joanna and Walter feel welcome. After a short time, Joanna starts to get a funny feeling about the women of Stepford. They are all so perfect that she can hardly believe it. The women are gorgeous and have fantastic bodies, plus they are always cheerful and perky. In addition, they seem to enjoy cooking, cleaning, and catering to their husbands' every need. Basically, they seemed more like stereotypical housewives from the 1950s than modern women.

Joanna soon makes two friends who clearly don't fit that Stepford mold. One is a slovenly best-selling novelist named Bobbie Markowitz (played by Bette Midler) and the other is an openly gay  architect named Roger Bannister (Roger Bart). All three agree that there's more than meets the eye in Stepford, and they set out to try to discover what's really going on.

This leads Joanna and Bobbie to sneak into the Stepford Men's Association, a huge mansion that's set aside for the Stepford husbands to use as a place to gather and hang out away from the women. While there are some creepy things inside the Men's Association, Joanna and Bobbie are unable to find out any solid information.

Then, something happens to both Roger and Bobbie. They are transformed into perfect Stepford residents seemingly overnight, which shows Joanna that there really is something afoot and it wasn't just her imagination that was telling here these things. The rest of the film then deals with the discoveries Joanna makes about Stepford and the truth behind the Stepford wives.

This film was billed as a comedy, and there are some genuinely funny moments in the movie. I though Roger Bart was absolutely fantastic in his role and was definitely the highlight of the entire movie for me. He stole every scene he was in, and when you're working with the likes of Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman, that's no small feat!

Unfortunately, Bart simply wasn't in enough scenes to salvage the movie. On the whole, I thought the film was pretty boring and uneventful. It was an extremely short movie by today's standards (the credits rolled before the 90-minute mark) but still felt pretty long. In other words, there wasn't enough going on in the plot to hold my attention and keep my eyes from straying to the clock.

I was surprised at how flat The Stepford Wives was, especially given the caliber of the cast. In addition to the people I've already mentioned, Glenn Close, Christopher Walken, Jon Lovitz, and Faith Hill all had roles in this one. Close was superb and Walken was very good as well, but again, the acting performances alone weren't enough to save this movie and make it worth watching.

Overall, I think you should save your money (and your time) by avoiding Frank Oz's take on The Stepford Wives. While the movie isn't a total disaster, there are very few redeeming qualities about it and they simply aren't enough to justify sitting through the whole thing.