The Stepford Wives (2004)

"The Stepford Wives" was a shocking and very disturbing book and film. The material has been watered down with many TV-movie sequels. Where the original film the men where actually killing their wives and replacing them with "PERFECT ROBOTS".This film just like the TV-movies instead of "killing the women" they were brainwashed. However in the TV-movies it was okay because they stuck with that concept.Here they seem to be robots (Hello one wife becomes an atm) but later we find out she is just brainwashed. This film sucks and I am glad it tanked!

I like how men behave in the film. Unlike many other films, men in this film are weak, selfish and to some degree quite true. The idea of robots does not make too much sense to me but it looks like a practical way to solve the problem of men. I also like the way how tradition is presented in the film and the AOL joke.

Thirty years after the release of the critically acclaimed original here is the critically slammed remake.Nicole Kidman is a hard as nails television executive who makes feminist television reality shows. She gets fired when a male victim of one of her shows goes postal.Matthew Broderick plays her husband and is also a media executive. He has noticed the despite being a successful couple their marriage has suffered because of the work/life balance.After her dismissal the couple move to the town of Stepford which seems like an idyllic retreat from the stresses and strains of the rat race in the city. The wives are the stay at home types and the husbands seems to be all rest and play. Not sure who does any work!Broderick recognizes that Stepford is a happy community. Kidman along with frumpy author Bette Midler and a renowned gay designer finds there is something wrong with this white picket fenced Republican wet dream.This version is a satire mixed with black humour and a surprisingly amiable film as long as you park your brain elsewhere. The film went through re-shoots with an ending that does not work. Then again a lot of the film does not work if you spend too long thinking about it. Its as a half good idea and an unfinished script which got the green light to go into production.Are these women robots or was there some sort of brain re- programming? If they are robots the original women must be dead? We have a scene where one of the women dispenses bank notes for some reason. If its some sort of brain re-programming then the women could become normal at the end of the film. However the film wants it both ways which means the script was not ready, unsure or had to be re-shot later on.

This ninety million dollar production is the parody of a perfect city, Stepford, embodying the capitalistic world idea of perfect life. The face of master actress Glenn Close and that of average actress Nicole Kidman, would both look better than 10 years ago if only plastic were better than skin, while they sadly are rendered incapable of expression by cosmetic surgery, to a degree making us feel thankful for surgery on eyes being impossible — or else Kidman would likely have already wasted her astounding ones as she did with her face.This version is however inferior to the original, dating 3 decades back in time, and while the representation of mass media and doll-women are well achieved, the film is quite barren of either any distinctive concept or seriously amusing joke. It can still be enjoyable if regarded as shallow entertainment.