The Stepford Wives (2004 film)

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The Stepford Wives

The Stepford Wives movie poster
Directed by Frank Oz
Produced by Scott Rudin
Written by Ira Levin
Paul Rudnick
Starring Nicole Kidman
Glenn Close
Matthew Broderick
Music by David Arnold
Cinematography Rob Hahn
Editing by Jay Rabinowitz
Distributed by Paramount Pictures (USA)
DreamWorks (non-USA)[1]
Release date(s) June 11, 2004
Running time 93 min.
Country Flag of the United States
Language English
Budget $90 million
Gross revenue $101,913,194
Preceded by The Stepford Wives
IMDb profile

The Stepford Wives is a 2004 black comedy/science fiction film based on the Ira Levin novel The Stepford Wives.

The film was directed by Frank Oz with a screenplay by Paul Rudnick and stars Nicole Kidman, Glenn Close, Matthew Broderick, Christopher Walken, Roger Bart, Faith Hill, Bette Midler and Jon Lovitz.

Contents

[edit] Plot

After television executive Joanna Eberhart (Kidman) is attacked and nearly killed by a disgruntled reality television show contestant, she and her husband Walter (Broderick) and their two children move from Manhattan to Stepford, a quiet Connecticut suburb. Eberhart becomes friends with Bobbie Markowitz (Midler), a writer and recovering alcoholic, and Roger Bannister (Bart), who is gay and has moved to town with his longtime partner. The three of them are suspicious of the other women in the town, who are all placid and blissful and spend their days exclusively on domestic tasks. After witnessing a quickly covered-up incident in which one of the Stepford wives, Sarah Sunderson (Hill), violently malfunctions, and later, the increasingly bizarre behavior of their own spouses, Joanna, Bobbie, and Roger are moved to investigate the strange goings-on in Stepford. In the process, Roger and Bobbie are transformed into bland, unnatural, domestic versions of themselves. The inhuman nature of these new Stepford spouses is revealed to Joanna when she attempts to confront the newly-transformed Bobbie and Bobbie unknowingly places her hand on a lit stove, but does not react to the flame. Joanna attempts to flee, only to discover that her children have been taken hostage by the men of Stepford. She storms the Stepford Men's Club, angrily demanding her children be returned, and is entrapped by the men who have been lying in wait for her. She is forced into the transformation room with her husband, and next we see her, she is calmly purchasing groceries alongside the rest of the Stepford wives, having apparently become one of them.

Soon after, Stepford hosts a formal ball to celebrate the full assimilation of the town, with Eberhart and her husband Walter as guests of honor. During the festivities, Joanna distracts Mike Wellington (Walken), the apparent leader of Stepford, and entices him into the garden while Walter slips away. Walter returns to the transformation room where he destroys the software that is controlling Stepford's wives, freeing them. When Walter returns to the ball, a crisis has broken out between the baffled husbands and their vengeful wives. Joanna and Walter reveal that Joanna had never been transformed but had instead pretended to be in order to assist in the destruction of Stepford. Mike threatens Walter, but before he can attack him, Joanna strikes him with a candlestick, decapitating him, and revealing that he too is a robot. Distraught over the loss of her Stepford husband, Mike's wife, Claire Wellington (Close), reveals that she was the one who had created Stepford as a refuge from the evils of the world in a fit of despair after discovering the real Mike had been having an affair. Claire electrocutes herself using the remains of her Stepford husband, and the irate wives take over Stepford and force their husbands to atone for their crimes by becoming completely subject to the women's wills, placing them under house arrest, and making them complete many of the same banal domestic tasks they had forced the women to do previously.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Production

This film is notorious for the numerous production problems that occurred throughout its shooting schedule. The tension started when both John Cusack and Joan Cusack, originally slated to star in supporting roles, pulled out of the project and were replaced by Matthew Broderick and Bette Midler, respectively. After filming was initially completed, several changes were made to the new script, which created a number of plot holes, and the cast was called back for reshoots. Reports of problems onset between director Frank Oz and stars Nicole Kidman and Bette Midler were rampant in the press. Kidman was reportedly so dissatisfied with the new screenplay that she considered pulling out of the project. In recent interviews, Kidman, Matthew Broderick and producer Scott Rudin have all expressed regret for participating in this project.[citation needed]

[edit] Differences between the 2004 film and previous versions

  • The town's women were formerly successful and powerful figures in their industries - scientists, politicians, television moguls. In 1975, the women were only just beginning to attain power in the workforce equal to men's.
  • Among the couples who had recently moved to Stepford was a gay couple. In the original novel, the newest couple to move in after the protagonist is the town's first African American couple.
  • Unlike previous versions, the head programmer of the wives, Mike Wellington (Christopher Walken) is revealed to be a robot himself, a Stepford Husband (a nod to the changing times). The real programmer is his wife Claire (Glenn Close).
  • In the original novel and movie, the women are killed and then replaced by robotic replicas of themselves. In this version, the women remain human, but are under the influence of a microchip placed in their brains.
  • This version is more of a comedy than a horror, unlike the original version.

[edit] Box office

The film's opening gross was $21,406,781 in the US, eventually grossing a total of $59,484,742; it grossed $42,428,452 internationally for a total of $101,913,194.[2]

[edit] Filming locations

The majority of the film was shot in Darien, Connecticut and New Canaan, Connecticut.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Paramount now also effectively owns the international rights to the film, due to parent Viacom purchasing DreamWorks in December 2005
  2. ^ The Stepford Wives (2004)

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Films directed by Frank Oz

The Dark Crystal (1982) • The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984) • Little Shop of Horrors (1986) • Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) • What About Bob? (1991) • HouseSitter (1992) • The Indian in the Cupboard (1995) • In & Out (1997) • Bowfinger (1999) • The Score (2001) • The Stepford Wives (2004) • Death at a Funeral (2007)