The Stepford Wives

Director: Frank Oz, Bryan Forbes Frank Oz

Overview

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.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/07/2017
UPC:	0032429288059
Original Release:	2004
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	PARAMOUNT
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:32:00

Special Features

Closed Caption; 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

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Nicole Kidman	Joanna Eberhard
Matthew Broderick	Walter Kresby
Bette Midler	Bobbie Markowitz
Glenn Close	Claire Wellington
Christopher Walken	Mike Wellington
Roger Bart	Roger Bannister
David Marshall Grant	Jerry Harmon
Jon Lovitz	Dave Markowitz
Dylan Hartigan	Peter Kresby
Fallon Brooking	Kimberly Kresby
Faith Hill	Sarah Sunderson
Matt Malloy	Herb Sunderson
Kate Shindle	Beth Peters
Tom Riis Farrell	Stan Peters
Lorri Bagley	Charmaine Van Sant
Robert Stanton	Ted Van Sant
Lisa Masters	Carol Wainwright
Christopher Evan Welch	Ed Wainwright
Colleen Dunn	Marianne Stevens
Jason Kravits	Vic Stevens
Emily Wing	Additional Stepford Wife
C.S. Lee	Additional Stepford Husband
Tony Torn	Additional Stepford Husband
Mary Beth Peil	Helen Devlin
Andrea Anders	Heather
Mike White	Hank
Carrie Preston	Barbara
Billy Bush	`I Can Do Better' Host
Tyler McGuckin	Adam Markowitz
Nick Reidy	Ben Markowitz
Sebastian Rand	Max Markowitz
Tanoai Reed	Tonkiro
Blaise Corrigan	Security Guard
George Aguilar	Security Guard,Security Guard
Meredith Vieira	`Balance of Power' Host
Rick Holmes	Bob,Bob
KaDee Strickland	Tara
Larry King	Himself
Munro M. Bonnell	Stepford Guard
Michele Durning	Nurse,Nurse
Kenny Kosek	Square Dance Musician
Will Woodard	Square Dance Musician
Elizabeth Austin	Dancer
Deanna Dys	Dancer
Joanne DiMauro	Dancer
Digene Farrar	Dancer
Bernard Ferstenberg	Dancer
James Peter Lynch	Dancer
Shannon McGain	Dancer
Cristin Mortenson	Dancer
Elizabeth A. Patek	Dancer
David Purves	Dancer
Joesph Ricci	Dancer
Mark Vaughn	Dancer
Jason Kravitz	Actor
David Arnold	Composer

Technical Credits

Paul Rudnick

Frank Oz	Director
Paul Rudnick	Screenwriter
Ron Bozman	Executive Producer,Producer
Jill Brown	Stunts
Donald De Line	Producer
Gabriel Grunfeld	Producer
Steve Kirshoff	Special Effects
Helena Packer	Special Effects
Laura Rosenthal	Casting
Scott Rudin	Producer
Keri Lyn Selig	Executive Producer,Producer,Producer,Executive Producer
Scott Souter	Special Effects
Juliet Taylor	Casting
Shawnna Thibodeau	Stunts
Phil Tippett	Special Effects
Bryan Forbes	Director
Edgar J. Scherick	Producer
Michael Bird	Special Effects
Jonah Brennan	Special Effects
Wilfred Caban	Special Effects
Gina Alfano	Sound Effects
Ron Bochar	Sound/Sound Designer
Nicholas Renbeck	Sound Editor
Laura Civiello	Sound Editor
Danny Michael	Sound/Sound Designer
Julia Shirar	Sound Editor

Editorial Reviews

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.