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Stepford Wives
© Palomar/ Fadsin - all rights reserved |
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| Tookey's Rating |
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7
/10 |
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| Average Rating |
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5.92
/10 |
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| Starring |
Katharine Ross  , Paula Prentiss , Peter Masterson
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| Full Cast > |
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Directed by:
Bryan Forbes
Written by:
William Goldman, from Ira Levin's novel
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| Released: |
1975 |
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| Genre: |
SCIENCE FICTION
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| Origin: |
US |
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| Length: |
74 |
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ANTI Reviews
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| | | The dialogue is gummy, the situations dimly functional; the movie gives the impression of a patchwork script, and it's blah and becalmed . . . I dislike The Stepford Wives for reasons that go beyond its being a cruddy movie: I dislike it for the condescension implicit in its view that educated American women are not responsible for what they become. Women, the abused, are being treated like the innocent young potheads of the late sixties - as a suffering privileged class. This sentimentality is degrading. | | | | | (Pauline Kael, New Yorker ) | | | A sleazy rather than slick thriller (by Bryan Forbes, who can do better) about a suburban men's association that replaces its members' wives with nearly identical but more curvaceous, sexually submissive, and mindless robots. Its one interesting feature is its being peddled in some quarters as a feminist picture because one of the wives is almost smart enough to avert her doom! | | | | | (John Simon, National Review) | | | It was hard to tell Katharine Ross playing a robot from Katharine Ross playing a normal housewife. | | | | | (Les Keyser) | | | A small idea is hopelessly over-inflated and the Woman's Liberation message is put over with all the subtlety of a train accident. | | | | | (Alan Frank, long after release) | | | This oft-referenced tale of suburban wives who suddenly lose their vibrant individualism and become ‘perfect housewives’ may earn points for becoming a piece of Americana, but it's hardly excellent filmmaking. Little more than a knockoff of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Stepford Wives makes one tragic mistake: The women in town actually seem more interesting after their transformation than before it, when they come across as whiny and petulant, and little else. | | | | | (Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com, 2004) | | | This movie's dated feminist message is downright heavy-handed. The 2004 version of the film is played for laughs, and that's understandable; when Bobbi-bot malfunctions, it's hard not to giggle as she caroms off the cabinets in her spotless kitchen like she's stuck in a pinball machine, all the while repeating ‘How could you do such a thing? I thought you were my friend!’ The Stepford Wives' appeal lies in its camp element, and much of that can be traced to director Bryan Forbes. Most of his shot compositions and camera angles are pretty pedestrian, and the whole movie has a washed-out Seventies Movie-of-the-Week look to it. The performances are nothing to write home about either, and Paula Prentiss is downright bizarre at times, chewing the scenery with abandon and constantly staying a half-beat behind or ahead in her delivery. Some of the cast members seem to have a blank check as far as acting style, while others aren't doing much more than reading lines. Much of the movie's oddball atmosphere and uneven direction is explained in the special features [on the DVD]. There's no commentary track or making-of documentary, but there is a lengthy interview with Prentiss, Ross, Forbes, and producer Roger Rothstein. There's a lot of head-butting and ego-bruising, with screenwriter William Goldman in the middle of it all. Goldman reveals that Brian DePalma was originally slated for the director's chair (on the strength of 1973's Sisters), but Goldman announced that he would walk off the movie if DePalma directed. The mind fairly reels at how much differently the movie would have been had DePalma helmed it. Goldman also mentioned that the actresses were originally to have worn Playboy-bunny outfits(!), but Forbes' spouse Nanette Newman ‘wouldn't have looked too good in one,’ thus the Victorian-style frills and long dresses that the actresses did wear. Goldman also seemed somewhat irritated that every movie directed by Forbes includes Newman, as sort of a package deal... Much of what impact The Stepford Wives might have had back in the Seventies has faded today; it's hard not to roll your eyes as a drunken Carol-bot (Newman) lurches around at a cocktail party, repeating ‘I'll just die if I don't get this recipe’ like a mantra to whomever will listen. Reports are that the Stepford remake is a spotty film with a rocky production story, but it's pretty clear that the original was due for a send-up. | | | | | (Jerry Renshaw, Reel.com, long after release) | |
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