STEPFORD WIVES 2004 (DVD) (WS) DVD

The Stepford Wives
Ira Levin's best-selling novel about a town where great wives aren't born but made gets a second screen adaptation in this darkly satirical comedy drama. Joanna Eberhart (Nicole Kidman) is a successful television executive until one day her career hits the glass ceiling and crashes to the ground. Looking to take some time off to start over, Joanna and her husband, Walter Kresby (Matthew Broderick), pull up stakes and move to the peaceful suburban community of Stepford. Walter takes to his new environment with real enthusiasm and joins the local men's organization, headed by one Mike Wellington. Joanna, on the other hand, finds that Stepford is just a bit too quiet and well-groomed for her taste, and is taken aback by the aggressively cheerful and servile attitude of Mike's wife, Claire (Glenn Close), and the other women of the community. A notable exception is Bobbi Markowitz (Bette Midler), a happily misanthropic writer who revels in her lack of enthusiasm for housework or exercise. Joanna and Bobbi become fast friends, but as they look closer at the all-too-perfect surfaces of Stepford and its female inhabitants, they slowly discover a terrible secret lurking beneath. Also featuring Faith Hill, Jon Lovitz, and Roger Bart, The Stepford Wives was previously adapted for the screen in 1975, with Katherine Ross in the lead; that version spawned three made-for-TV sequels. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Cast Nicole Kidman as Joanna Eberhart Matthew Broderick as Walter Kresby Bette Midler as Bobbi Markowitz Glenn Close as Claire Wellington Christopher Walken as Mike Wellington Roger Bart as Roger Bannister David Marshall Grant as Jerry Harmon Jon Lovitz as David Markowitz Faith Hill as Sarah Sunderson Lorri Bagley as Charmaine Van Sant

Crew Peter Rogness - Art Director Laura Rosenthal - Casting Juliet Taylor - Casting Leslie Converse - Co-producer Ann Roth - Costume Designer Mark Cotone - First Assistant Director Frank Oz - Director Jay Rabinowitz - Editor Keri Selig - Executive Producer Ron Bozman - Executive Producer David Arnold - Composer (Music Score) Randall Poster - Musical Direction/Supervision Jackson de Govia - Production Designer Rob Hahn - Cinematographer Edgar J. Scherick - Producer Scott Rudin - Producer Donald De Line - Producer Gabriel Grunfeld - Producer Debra Schutt - Set Designer Danny Michael - Sound/Sound Designer Ron Bochar - Sound/Sound Designer Julia Shirar - Sound Editor Nicholas Renbeck - Sound Editor Laura Civiello - Sound Editor Paul Rudnick - Screenwriter Scott Souter - Visual Effects Supervisor Frank Petzold - Visual Effects Supervisor Ron Bochar - Supervising Sound Editor Jason Heapy - Visual Effects Producer Ira Levin - Book Author

The Stepford Wives
Whoever came up with the idea to remake The Stepford Wives as a satirical comedy had a superb moment of inspiration. Paul Rudnick fills his script with the kind of catty one-liners that he is best known for, and figures out how to put new spins on the old premise. The casting in the film is right on the money. Glenn Close embodies the spirit of Stepford with a regal insistence. Matthew Broderick consistently manages to find all three dimensions in a character that seems underwritten until the final act. Just as she did in To Die For, Nicole Kidman shows that she has a gift for a particular type of cold-hearted comedy. Roger Bart, as a very flamboyant gay man who has been brought to Stepford by his straight-laced Republican life partner, perfectly delivers all the bitchy, outrageous lines not already reserved by Bette Midler. The film falls apart when it abandons the comedy in favor of actual suspense. Somewhere in the middle of the film, Kidman is surrounded in her home by the men of Stepford, but the film's tone has been so light and inconsequential it can not muster the slightest bit of terror or suspense. Sadly, an arbitrary third-act twist (no viewer will guess who the real "deus ex machina" is) fails to wrap up the main story in an interesting way -- even as the story line about Kidman and Broderick's marriage comes to a satisfying conclusion. One gets the feeling that Rudnick got it right on the page, but that Frank Oz was unable to get that film on the screen. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
 

(no awards)

General Specifications: Language Options: English, French Subtitle Options: English, Spanish Sound Processing: DD5.1: Dolby Digital w/ sub-woofer channel DDS: Dolby Digital Surround Additional Features: cc Commentary by director Frank Oz "A Perfect World: The Making of the Stepford Wives" "Stepford: A Definition" "Stepford: The Architects" "The Stepford Wives" "The Stepford Husbands" Stepford: Deleted/extended scenes Stepford: Gag reel Teaser trailer Theatrical trailer Widescreen version enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs Dolby Digital: English 5.1 Surround, English Dolby Surround, French 5.1 Surround English and Spanish subtitles DVD Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1: Theatre Wide-Screen MPAA Rating: PG13 DVD Discs Included: 1 DVD Sides: 1 DVD DVD Region Code: 1 Content Length: 92 min   DVD Chapters: Side #1 -- 1. A Perfect World 2. The Legendary Joanna Eberhart 3. Bad News 4. Welcome to Stepford 5. New Friends 6. Unusual Behavior 7. Mischievous Buddies 8. Men Behaving Badly 9. Snooping Around 10. New and Improved 11. Happy Homemaker 12. Joanna Confronts the Men 13. Mike's Victory 14. Breaking the Code 15. Claire's Story 16. A Not So Perfect World