Stepford Wives, The (2004)
Comedy | Drama | Thriller | Sci-Fi

Special Collector's Edition

"The Stepford Wives is a horror picture that will have you screaming-with laughter. It's wickedly funny." -Gene Shalit, Today

"I laughed my way through The Stepford Wives." -Cathleen McGuigan, Newsweek

"It's a flat-out comedy-funny!" -Joel Siegel, Good Morning America

Some critics disparage this film as a flimsy remake of the 1975 original but: Though the premise is the same, the Frank Oz movie is a comedy from start until the credits roll. I don't think of Nicole Kidman as a comedienne (nor is she much of an actress) but she handles this part very well. She exaggerates appropriately as the TV exec fired because of a "reality" project based on sex that threatens to ruin her network and subsequently as the post-nervous breakdown wife moved to Stepford to recover from the wreckage of life as a superstar. Moreover, while I doubt many people will agree with me, Kidman is far more attractive as a brunette than as a blonde. She reverts to her usual blonde self only at the end of the film when she's presented as a blonde robot. I wonder if she understood the irony. In short, Kidman is okay, though the comedy is supplied mostly by Matthew Broderick as her husband and by Bette Midler, Glenn Close, Christopher Walken (parodying his usual persona more or less) and Roger Bart and David Marshall Grant as a gay couple also newly arrived in Stepford. If seen without preconceptions based on the earlier movie, the new edition of Stepford Wives can be quite entertaining. Forget the Original: This is a comedy, guys.


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