The Stepford Wives (2004)

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 | Robot | Remake

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

Also Known As:

Las mujeres perfectas (Argentina) (International: Spanish title) (Peru) (Spain) [es]
Die Frauen von Stepford (Germany) (Switzerland: German title) [de]
Et l'homme créa la femme (France) [fr]
La donna perfetta (Italy) [it]
Les femmes de Stepford (Canada: French title) [fr]
Mulheres Perfeitas (Brazil) [pt]
Stepford Kadinlari (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Stepfordi naised (Estonia) [et]
Stepfordin naiset (Finland) [fi]

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sexual content, thematic material and language.

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

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:

Bedminster, New Jersey, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Tim Burton was attached to direct at one point.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The beam of Roger's flashlight produces spots - a sign it's being reflected off the camera's lens.

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:

Features "Larry King Live" (1985)

Soundtrack:

It Might as Well Be Spring

Alpha Bits

Ultra modern reworking of Ira Levin's bestseller from the 1970s (and the 1975 film counterpart starring Katharine Ross) about Connecticut suburb filled with perky, beautiful housewives and their boorish, piggy husbands. Nicole Kidman is very good as the newcomer in town whose husband (a rather stolid Matthew Broderick) immediately joins the Men's Association. Abandoning the sly dark humor of the original movie, this rather bombastic--and brief--92 minute version shows heavy signs of post-production tinkering. There are all sorts of things wrong with this movie, starting with the obvious hedging-of-bets pertaining to the mystery behind the wives (which might've been wildly successful if the filmmakers had just stuck to their original vision); Kidman's children disappear at camp, are brought home (off-camera), and then disappear again; one Stepford bunny coughs up money--exactly how is this done according to Christopher Walken's "home movie" near the finish? But the worst is saved for last, when an outlandish twist leads to the kind of teeth-grinding, Larry King-cameoed ending that undermines director Frank Oz's ability to even work on a movie much less direct one. Some of the cartoonish humor (though over-the-top) is entertaining and colorful, and the movie's first 45 minutes are good, but the thicker the plot gets, the more ridiculous the film becomes. *1/2 from ****