Film Reviews - The Stepford Wives
So they are all robots! Well that kind of makes sense because
earlier in the film we see one of the ladies go "crazy" and
sparks shoot out of her head.
What? Now you are telling me they are not robots but merely
humans with some enhanced microchips in their brain so that they
are under the control on the men fold of Stepford? Well I guess
that makes sense too as we see the plans on how the chips work,
it doesn't explain the sparking head from earlier but I'll
accept it.
So now you are telling me that the body is not real either and
that it is the "perfect body" with the women's brains implanted
inside and in turn their brains have these microchips attached
so that they are the perfect, beautiful and submissive wives?
Then why bother keeping the brains at all? What about the
sparks?
Oh dear oh dear oh dear we do seem to have a problem here and
that is that this film really doesn't seem to know its own plot.
I've sat through so many films in my time where I could have
driven a bus through a plot without any real resistance.
I've sat and watched as massive plot holes appear and I've then found
myself with my head in my hands as I see the exact moment it all
went to pieces for the writer and then the director and the plot
is destroyed and lost and you just know that surely somebody
could have done a better job at keeping everything together.
This really isn't the kind of film I would have gone to seen.
Once again it was a Wednesday evening and a mobile network here
in the UK is still offering two tickets for the price of one and
the fiancée had said she'd like to go and see this film so we
did.
I really wasn't expecting that much from the film, in my eyes it
was going to be a remake of an old film and you had to ask
yourself why they would bother as the film has already been
remade once and you cannot keep on remaking a film over and over
again as people will grow board of it eventually. Alternatively
it was going to be a new take on the story and that was going to
be my preference so I actually found myself rather looking
forward to seeing it.
What we actually have here isn't really a bad film although on
the other hand we cannot describe it as anything special either.
However we find that at the end of the film we still don't know
exactly what is going on, what has just happened and most
importantly are those damn ladies robots or not. After doing
some research online (only very briefly mind) I find that the
test audiences didn't like the first cut of the film where all
of the ladies were robots and so various changes had to be made.
The result is that we are left with a mess where nobody seems to
know what they are, it isn't entirely explained at the end of
the film and we really have to wait for the DVD and the rumoured
13 cut scenes and directors commentary before we will ever stand
a chance on this one.
The cast is extremely sound. Nicole Kidman is looking great
again, even when "power dressed" at the beginning of the film.
She plays her character well although I found her slightly
difficult to believe as the woman at the end of her nervous
break down. Matthew Broderick as the husband was well played
although I found that he took the plan of "possibly" turning
wives into robots a little too well for my liking. Bette Midler
& Glenn Close were also excellent on screen as you would expect
from this veteran actresses and I feel that between them they
certainly make the film their own and stole a lot of the
lime-light away from the younger actors.
The one possible exception being Roger Bark (playing Roger Bannister) who was the
funniest thing on the screen and it is almost worth going to see
the film just for a few of his scenes - he plays a camp gay man
and he is just so funny you will laugh out loud.
I don't think people will be too disappointed if they go to see this film
however as it currently stands it is a bit of a mess. Try not to
read too much into the film, sit back and enjoy it at face value
and I think you'll enjoy it. Attempt to analyse it and analyse
the storyline and the plot and you will end up spoiling the film
for yourself because there are some major plot-holes here that
once you realise are there will spoil things somewhat for you.
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