The Stepford Wives starts as photographer Joanna (Katherine Ross) & her lawyer husband Walter Eberhart (Peter Masterson) along with their two young children arrive at their new home in the small town of Stepford having decided to move away from the hassles of big city life in New York. Stepford seems perfect, it seems like the ideal place to live & raise a family but Joanna starts to have doubts about it. Everything in Stepford seems almost too perfect, Joanna befriends Bobbie (Paula Prentiss) who also has her suspicions about Stepford & the people who live there. Joanna's husband Walter joins the local Men's Association & begins to change while Bobbie also completely changes after spending a weekend away with her husband, Joanna investigates the mystery & discovers a shocking truth...
Directed by Bryan Forbes this was the first filmed adaptation of the novel of the same name by Ira Levin whose literary work include the source novels for various films such as Rosemary's Baby (1968), The Boys from Brazil (1978), Deathtrap (1982) & Sliver (1992) although the final script was written by William Goldman who himself has quite a resume including script's for All the President's men (1976), Marathon Man (1976), The Princess Bride (1987), Misery (1990), Maverick (1994) & The General's Daughter (1999) amongst other's. While watching The Stepford Wives I couldn't help but feel underwhelmed & a little let down, the potential is here for a terrific thriller with a dark satirical edge that could have been very effective but The Stepford Wives just never gets going & never fully explores it's themes or ideas. The idea of men killing their moaning wives & replacing them with perfect obedient robots is great but how are these robots made? Who makes them? What happens to the women they are set to impersonate? Why were that robots eye's black at the end? Why do so many men let their wives be replaced with robots? Has no-one ever gone to the authorities? Surely the robots wouldn't age? Nothing is explained in a very rushed & unsatisfying climax which left me wondering why I had bothered sitting through almost two hours of it to get absolutely nowhere. The logistics of the story are just absurd, none of it ever feels plausible or well thought out & even the satire is dry, bland & underwhelming. The attempt to make a social point about American idealism as the male chauvinist's are shown sexist pigs while the women are portrayed as nothing more than objects to cook & clean don't quite work either, it's all so tame & pleasant & nowhere near dark enough & the fact that the script takes itself so seriously doesn't help what is essentially a very silly sci-fi thriller anyway.
Over the years writer William Goldman has never hid his dislike of the finished film & has criticised director Forbes in particular who threw out his original concepts of picture perfect dolly birds in mini skirts & replaced it with boring middle aged women wearing long dresses & large hats. The Stepford Wives has dated, the issues & themes are from a bygone era & aren't as easy to relate to these days, in fact I was amazed at the scene in which Joanna tells her husband Walter about their neighbours kissing in the garden (in early morning no less!) with a surprising level of outrage. There's no violence to speak of & while there may be one or two moments which resemble a horror film The Stepford Wives doesn't go for scares.
Filmed mainly in Connecticut this wasn't particularly successful at the box-office & you can maybe see why, I don't think it's a film with mass appeal or much replay value. The acting is alright, I can't say I thought anyone was particularly great but no-one was particularly bad either.
The Stepford Wives tries to be a creepy sci-fi thriller & make a sweeping social statement about stereotypical American life & sexism but it just all ends up being rather dull & uninspired, I can't say i liked it that much myself. Followed by three made for television sequels Revenge of the Stepford Wives (1980), The Stepford Children (1987) & The Stepford Husbands (1996) before being remade as The Stepford Wives (2004) starring Nicole Kidman, Bette Midler & Glen Close no less.
20 out of 34 found this helpful