The Stepford Wives (2004)
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A woman seeking to repair her marriage moves to a suburban town where the wives are being systematically transformed into submissive robots.
The story
After a career-ending incident leads to a mental breakdown, Joanna Eberhart moves with her husband Walter and their two children to the suburb of Stepford in Connecticut. Seeking to repair her failing marriage, Joanna attempts to assimilate into the community. However, she soon discovers unsettling secrets about the town's residents. After witnessing a neighbor's strange behavior and discovering a remote control that affects a woman's physical state, Joanna begins to suspect that the local wives are being subjected to a mysterious and sinister transformation.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Joanna Eberhart, a high-powered executive, suffers a breakdown after an attempted murder and moves to the suburb of Stepford with her husband Walter and their children. She befriends a feminist writer, Bobbie, and a gay architect, Roger. After witnessing a neighbor, Sarah, behave robotically and finding a remote control that alters her, Joanna begins to investigate. She discovers that the local wives were all formerly successful women who have been transformed into submissive 'Stepford Wives' via brain nanochips. Joanna learns that Bobbie has already been transformed. When Walter tries to force Joanna into a transformation chamber, she manages to distract the Men's Association president and eventually destroys the software. The wives and Roger regain their autonomy and confront their partners. It is revealed that Mike, the Men's Association president, is a robot, and his wife Claire is the mastermind who created the program to 'improve' marriages after her husband's affair. Claire kills herself, and the film ends with the wives taking over the town and placing the husbands under house arrest for 'retraining.'
- First release year
- 2004
- Runtime (minutes)
- 93
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Frank Oz
- Writers
- Paul Rudnick · screenplay
- Genres
- science fiction; comedy; black comedy; feminist; satirical
- Themes
- marriage; submissiveness; feminism; technology
- Tone and mood
- darkly satirical; camp; chilling
- Premise and plot tags
- remake; sci-fi; black comedy; androids; robots
- Source material / true-story basis
- Ira Levin's 1972 novel
- Content notes
- LGBTQ-related
- Reception
- The film received generally negative reviews from critics and was a box-office failure.
- Awards and nominations
- Golden Trailer Award · Summer 2004 Blockbuster · 2004 · win; Golden Trailer Award · Most Original · 2004 · win; Golden Trailer Award · Best of Show · 2004 · win
- Production trivia
- John Cusack and his sister Joan were originally cast as Walter and Bobbie.; The film was originally conceived as a darkly satirical piece with an ending closer to the finale of the original.; The majority of the film was shot in Darien, New Canaan, and Norwalk, Connecticut.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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