Paramount Pictures, fast becoming the unofficial king of the remakes, revisits the classic 1975 chiller, this time opting for an entirely different tone. Whereas the original was a deliberately-paced, sometimes spooky version of Ira Levin's novel, this update is played for laughs, making comparisons a bit pointless: this version of The Stepford Wives is not likely to appeal to those who loved the original, and vise versa. That's not a bad thing, either...there's nothing more redundant than treading the same ground when remaking a movie. The problem is, while this one is often funny, it pretty much tosses aside its satiric tone during a third act that really sucks.

Nicole Kidman plays Joanna, an overly ambitious reality-TV producer who loses her job after one of her show's contestants goes berserk. She has a nervous breakdown, so her husband, Walter (Matthew Broderick) moves the family from Manhattan to the idyllic country town of Stepford, Connecticut in the hopes of saving their marriage. Stepford is the picture-perfect community, free of crime, poverty and stress; every home is huge and immaculately landscaped. They hold old-fashioned social gatherings, such as picnics and square dances. On a regular basis, the men gather together at the Men's Association, a club run by Mike Wellington (Christopher Walken, who's underused)), while his giddy wife, Claire (Glenn Close), leads the Stepford spouses in discussions about cookbooks or hilariously ridiculous aerobic workouts. The problem is Stepford seems too perfect, as Joanna suspects almost immediately. These women are all beautiful, blonde, and totally content to serve their husbands' every need. She finds kindred spirits in Bobbie (Bette Midler) and Roger (Roger Bart), the only two spouses who haven't yet conformed to the role expected from Stepford spouses. Getting no help from her husband, who falls in love with Stepford right away, Joanna and her two new friends begin to suspect wrong-doings at the Men's Association. She soon discovers that all of the Stepford Wives were once successful and ambitious women like herself, but have been "reprogrammed" to become docile, loving and subservient housewives by the Men's Association. At least, I think that's what happens; the film first suggests the new Stepford wives are robot replacements, but we later learn that microchips have been implanted in the women's brains to alter their behavior (which doesn't explain why one such wife becomes a walking ATM, or why another can place her hand on a burning stove...and if they are truly robots, it negates the movie's climax). The Stepford Wives starts off great, with sharp satiric jabs at reality TV and Kidman's portrayal of the ultimate ruthless TV exec. The performances are all uniformly excellent, especially Bart as the flamboyantly gay Roger, Close as the epitome of a 1950's loving housewife, and Midler as a sharp-tongued writer. It's obvious everyone has a lot of fun with their broadly-drawn roles, and from that aspect, the film is a pleasure to watch, as is the tremendous attention to detail in creating this idyllic community. But one problem I have is that the original version of The Stepford Wives was definitely a product of its time, released at the height of the women's lib movement. Any attempt at an update would seem superfluous. Here, the film has no choice but to depict everyone as a self-consciously campy cartoon character to make it work. While there are some clever moments of satire, such as the fact all the women drive SUVs, a lot of satiric opportunities to comment on modern suburban life are overlooked (one would think some sort of soccer-mom joke would be present in a film purporting to be a satire). Unlike the original, in which the sinister doings of the Men's Association is the big payoff, this version lets us know almost immediately that the wives of Stepford are automations, leaving the rest of the film to show us how Kidman's character deals with the problem. The final third of the movie is a big disappointment, opting for a "clever" plot twist that can be predicted by even the stupidest of viewers, mainly because we've been conditioned to expect it. Needless to say, the climax of this film is typical of most modern big-budget Hollywood movies...homogenized and generic, when it should be more mean-spirited. As for the revelation as to who's really behind it all, this version offers an explanation which will likely leave the viewer feeling confused and short-changed.

The film is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, and it looks really good. The creative use of color is accurately rendered here, and there are no discernable blemishes, marks or scratches. As for the sound, The Stepford Wives is presented in both 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital Surround Sound, and Paramount has done its usually great job preserving it for DVD.

There's the usual smattering of extra features included with this disc. An audio commentary by director Frank Oz is included, which is hit-or-miss in the valuable info department. Also included are some featurettes (mostly of the fluff variety) about the making of the film. Some deleted scenes, trailers and a gag reel (which I particularly enjoyed) are included as well.

Similar Films: The Stepford Wives (1975) ; Death Becomes Her; She-Devil; Heathers Summary: This version of The Stepford Wives is pretty predictable, but bolstered by a script with some clever dialogue and amusing set-pieces. It could have been so much more, though, had they tried to boost it with more up-to-date satire than be content to release another Hollywood product. What's here is at least watchable for the performances alone; I just wish they would have tried harder to take this concept in a more relevant direction.