Analysis of The Stepford Wives :: The Stepford Wives Movies Film Essays

Analysis of The Stepford WivesMildly diverting is about the best that can be said for The Stepford Wives, a remake so pointless it could be about as entertaining as daytime tv.. Adapted from Ira Levins chilling novel as a comedy, as opposed to the nifty 70s thriller which made the title a household phrase, the makers have missed out one pivotal ingredient Laughs.Nicole Kidman (Moulin rouge, practical magic) plays Joanna, a burnt-out TV executive who gets fired from her job and is driven to the 50s suburb of stepford, where rich, style-free, god awful manpower live with impossibly beautiful and servile women.As we arrive we already know that something is suspect and its not just the scriptThe original film, though far from flawless itself, stirred in the extra ingredient of sexual politics, playing on mens fear of powerful women abandoning the home for the workplace. In the 21st century Stepford, Kidman is a high flier whose career crash leads her to question maybe Ive become the wr ong kindly of woman age her hapless husband (Matthew Broderick) moans your whole attitude makes people want to kill you. Its an interesting idea, that womens liberation has led to a different kind of servitude- to the boardroom not the bedroom. But it was never properly explored.To be honest, given real-life inequalities (and I know were talking movies here) in pay and conditions and the lack of women in higher(prenominal) management its stupid to suggest the struggle for womens rights has been won.But it just isnt very entertaining, and social issues aside, this film has about as a good deal consistency as a pancake stuck to the ceiling, for a while there it holds on to something but in the end it falls to the floor in pieces.The film director Frank Oz assumes, probably quite rightly, that the audience knows why the sisters of Stepford so slavishly serve their men, but the lack of surprise or suspense cruelly exposes a similar lack of decent jokes, some of which are chucked in at the wrong moments, which could have otherwise saved a scene or two.