| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Nicole Kidman | ... | Joanna Eberhart | |
| Matthew Broderick | ... | Walter Kresby | |
| Bette Midler | ... | Bobbie Markowitz | |
| Glenn Close | ... | Claire Wellington | |
| Christopher Walken | ... | Mike Wellington | |
| Roger Bart | ... | Roger Bannister | |
| David Marshall Grant | ... | Jerry Harmon | |
| Jon Lovitz | ... | Dave Markowitz | |
| Dylan Hartigan | ... | Pete Kresby | |
| Fallon Brooking | ... | Kimberly Kresby | |
| Faith Hill | ... | Sarah Sunderson | |
| Matt Malloy | ... | Herb Sunderson | |
| Kate Shindle | ... | Beth Peters | |
| Tom Riis Farrell | ... | Stan Peters | |
| Lorri Bagley | ... | Charmaine Van Sant | |
Joanna Eberhart, a wildly successful president of a TV Network, after a series of shocking events, suffers a nervous breakdown and is moved by her milquetoast of a husband, Walter, from Manhattan to the chic, upper-class, and very modern planned community of Stepford, Connecticut. Once there, she makes good friends with the acerbic Bobbie Markowitz, a Jewish writer who's also a recovering alcoholic. Together they find out, much to their growing stupor and-then horror, that all the housewives in town are strangely blissful and, somehow... doomed. What is going on behind the closed doors of the Stepford Men's Association and the Stepford Day Spa? Why is everything perfect here? Will it be too late for Joanna and Bobbie when they finally find out? Written by Miguel Cane <stepford@yahoo.com>
This movie is a perfect example of what is wrong with the state of movies today. The original was a gem, with excellent acting by Katharine Ross, Paula Prentiss, and Patrick O'Neal. It was part horror story, part feminist cautionary tale. Most of all, it was BELIEVABLE! You got the feeling these were real people, and that all this could really be happening--and with a minimum of "special effects". The dialogue was pretty intelligent, the plot twists weren't given away in the first 15 minutes, and the ending was a real shocker. You cared about the female characters in the movie--you cared about Joanna's plight, and rooted for her to escape her planned fate.
The current version could only--and was probably meant to--appeal to the lowest common denominator of movie-goer. In this film, the women are just as bad as the men--you don't give a damn what happens to them; that's how annoying the characters are. The laughs are cheap and lowbrow, vital plot elements of Ira Levin's novel are missing, and the acting is just plain bad.
You know what? I'm getting annoyed just writing about this dreck. If you have any taste, any sense, any feeling for good films, any aversion to wasting good money on bad movies--stay far away from this one!! See the original, and appreciate the stunning subtlety of a thinking person's movie, well-made and well-acted.