The Stepford Wives

I read the book¹ so now I’m watching the film adaptations of it. This one stars Nicole Kidman and Matthew Broderick.

It’s a much jauntier affair than the book. It’s quite a funny novel but this turns it into a more broad campy high-concept comedy, which in isolation isn’t so bad and gets a few laughs, but it does the novel pretty dirty and refuses to take it seriously.

It really comes a cropper when it tries to change the ending to a punchline that has some comeuppance for the men. A classic Hollywood fuck up that is probably focus-group friendly but ultimately kills the film.

What’s eerie is that the film is like a Stepford-wife version of the book, a prettier but braindead husk of what was there before.