Review of The Stepford Wives (2004) by Ken F — 19 May 2014

I didn't know what to expect from The Stepford Wives as I have never seen the original, but since the remake was directed by Frank Oz, I decided to give it a shot.

The Stepford Wives is clearly not a film which could live up to the original and you can identify that solely on the basis of one of the key themes in the film. The Stepford Wives deals with conformism, and it deals with it in a twisted manner of using robots to replace real people with artificial ones that fit the image of an ideal community better. As the original source novel came from 1972 and the original film came from 1975, both fitted into the context of the counterculture movement that was occurring at the time. It was a popular concept that was prevalent in many films as a lot of movies began to deal with corrupt people in power and how they were changing society for the worse, and The Stepford Wives took the idea to an all new level with a mix of social commentary and satire as well as science fiction thriller elements. The idea sounded interesting, and I have no idea how it was handled by Bryan Forbes but considering the kind of praise it received it is clear that it would be better than Frank Oz's remake. Most remakes are bad, and The Stepford Wives is another example because it eliminates the themes that made the original important and notable in lieu of lacklustre attempts at comedy.

The problem is that Frank Oz instead takes a comedic approach to the film and eliminates the elements of the film that rendered it a horror or a thriller. It even eliminates the possibility of any science fiction feel because it takes the film way too seriously as a comedy, and instead of poking fun at the stupidities of some of the characters and their decisions it simply boxes them in on the basis of their genders. The original was clever because the comedy came lightly into its chilling satirical elements, but in this version it is too heavy handed as a comedy while only being sporadically funny. The Stepford Wives attempts to be funny solely on the basis of gender segregation and stereotypes, but it really isn't as it portrays all the men as villains and all the women as victims. So the film is sexist as well. I can see how it would have made more sense back in the 1970's when the feminist movement was beginning to blossom and make an actual impact on society. Today, with all the sexual conflict going on between the feminist movement and Men's Rights Activists, its themes are no longer that funny unless they are dealt with correctly. Frank Oz fails to do that and instead simply goes over the top with crafting characters that are all sexual stereotypes, and in the end makes a film which is hardly original or entertaining and is more sexist than anything. Frank Oz doesn't poke clever humourous fun at gender stereotypes, and he sacrifices the satirical edge of the film in lieu of simply poor storytelling and a series of poor quality jokes usually reserved for romantic comedies.The message in the film The Stepford Wives is that women are superior to men but men are likely to be threatened by it all and as men have power in society they are likely to use it to stand up and take down women's rights for their own selfish desires. Frank Oz doesn't look at this in a satirical manner, he looks at it in an offensive one. While particular female or misandrist viewers may look at this film and consider it an example of the future, level headed viewers will realise that it is just a ridiculous misfire on behalf of Frank Oz which produces themes of sexism and doesn't even look at them in the intelligent manner that the original source novel and film was said to. It tries to laugh about it, but I was barely ever laughing in The Stepford Wives. Yeah, I chuckled once or twice, but as the story tried to become meaningful it became more and more offensive to me.

The Stepford Wives ends up so awkward that it doesn't really follow much of a singular narrative. It ends up feeling like a series of inconsistent comedy sketches desperately combined into a single film. I could never really tell what direction the story was actually going in, but then again I wasn't happy with the direction it decided to go in anyway. Seriously, The Stepford Wives is the kind of film I would expect from a die-hard man-hating feminist, but not from Frank Oz. So it is clearly his worst film as a director.

Although like the titular Stepford Wives the movie feels very artificial, I would say that Nicole Kidman gives a decent performance. She manages to work with the universe of the film in a way that it almost seems genuine enough. During the dramatic moments of the film, Nicole Kidman is somewhat compelling, and as a whole she manages to capture the energy of her character just right. It isn't difficult to sympathise for her because as the victimised female character she does raise some valid points and do it with a passion. If the writers put in the kind of effort that Nicole Kidman did, The Stepford Wives would be a better film. But since that isn't the case, one of the few things that the film can really boast is the quality of Nicole Kidman's performance.

Glenn Close's supporting performance is also a dedicated one as she has a certain gleeful charm to her which is entertaining, and Bette Middler's performance has some decent moments. Jon Lovitz even has a few funny moments during his brief time on screen.

But all in all, The Stepford Wives sacrifices the original novel's social commentary and thriller elements in favour of an excess of unfunny humour and a lot of misandry.