Movie Notes: The Stepford Wives
= 1 star
Starring Matthew Broderick, Nicole Kidman
Directed by Frank Oz
The Stepford Wives is a real time waster, even as a rental, mostly from a lack of guts. The entire premise is out-dated, that of nerdy men wanting beautiful, subservient wives. The whole stereotype of “perfect wife” these guys come up with comes straight out of the 1950s. It makes the town of Stepford look more like a white, conservative Republican hell… I certainly wouldn’t want to live there.
But due to a lack of guts the movie-makers thought to make an already politically incorrect film “palatable” by having a gay couple, complete with a Stepford-husband-partner. Sorry, but that little plot update made the film even more offensive than if it had not been there. I think The Stepford Wives would have done better to not shy away from its blatant retro-feel. Maybe have Ann Coulter make a cameo and in the end Sam Jackson could firebomb the whole town.
[…] wives subservient Barbie dolls. While somewhat plausible in the seventies, a few decades later a misguided remake starring Nicole Kidman, had to treat the same plot as comedy, feeling today’s audience could only suspend belief so […]