Stepford Wives
I'd been meaning to see the classic version for ages, but a few weeks ago when I was looking for something fluffy and mindless to watch on Netflix instant viewing, the newer, Nicole Kidman version caught my eye. Of course, after watching that I bumped the original up to the top of my queue because I absolutely had to be able to compare. That said, there are definite spoilers ahead, but I'm not using a cut on the basis that everyone knows the basic premise of The Stepford Wives.
The original moved a bit slowly, at least at first, but was a far superior story. Although the concept has aged well, the movie itself has not. The evil mastermind is, of course, Dis (pronounced "dizz"). The very first time we meet him, it's revealed that the nickname comes from his former employer, Disney. When describing the automaton behavior of the wives of Stepford, Joanna (our heroine) says they're like "the robots at Disneyland." This is good storytelling, but to an audience 30+ years later, the robots at Disneyland are rather a joke. Similarly, the housewives that need so much improvement are still, well, housewives. These days any family where the man goes to work and the woman stays home to keep house and raise the kids is practically the Cleavers. What's to fix?
I can see why someone felt it was time for a remake. And they did have a few really good ideas for updating the story. And, as my old directing professor would say, they had a lot of really bright ideas, as well. At first glance, a bright idea looks, for all the world, like a good idea, and gods, but don't you feel clever for having thought of it. The key is sorting out all the clever "bright" ideas from the genuinely good ideas. They didn't do that with their remake.
Of the non-robot wives we meet in the first half of the original, only two remain in the remake: Joanna and her best friend Bobbie. The third is replaced by a the flamboyantly gay Roger (and her husband replaced by a log cabin republican). They've changed Joanna from a part-time photographer/full-time stay-at-home mom to a career-driven tv exec who recently lost her job as the result of a scandal. She and her family move out to Stepford for a new start, and Joanna--left to fill the role of housewife--is finding very little fulfillment there. Bobbie has also moved up in the world and, while she does stay at home with the kids, it's only because she can write her wildly successful novels at home just as easily as anywhere else. A few scenes inside her home reveal it to be an absolute pig sty, every surface covered in who-knows-what. The personalities of all three women (including the one who is now a man) stay more or less in tact.
So far I'm with them. The characters have been updated in a way that makes sense both for the story that's about to unfold and for the era in which these women live. As far as I'm concerned, these were good ideas. Except maybe Roger. It's not a BAD idea, it just seems like an unnecessary complication. But even so. I'm basically still with them here.
The remake also had the benefit of better make-up, lighting, film techniques, etc. In the remake, the wives of Stepford really do seem just a little too perfect to be real. It's possible they seemed this way in the original as well, but for me, it was hard to see past the grainy film quality and the ridiculous, ruffle-y 70s sense of "ideal housewife" fashion.
The remake had one more good idea which was, unfortunately, terribly executed. When Mike (Dis's 2004 counterpart--and short for "Microsoft" for no good reason whatsoever) reveals to Joanna how it's all done, it's explained that there is no robot replica. The wives of Stepford have simply had their behavior modified by means of a few microchips in their brain. I continue to think this is a good idea. It seems somehow far more modern and more practical than making the robot replicas (how do you program in all their memories? What do you do with the bodies?). It also seems far more horrific. Don't get me wrong, being replaced by a robot is pretty awful... but having your own behavior modified, being trapped inside your own head all that time? Way worse in my opinion. At least the other way you're not around to see what happens.
However, this single good idea was also the movie's worst enemy. It's like they thought of it halfway through production, but didn't go back to make the proper edits. When one of the wives goes haywire on the dance floor, Joanna sees her give off sparks. When the plot is revealed to her husband, Walter, one of the wives is seen dispensing cash like an ATM. After the process is revealed to her, Joanna and Walter leave with a bald, but otherwise perfect (and perfected) replica of Joanna--presumably the robot the original script called for her to be replaced with.
They disappear into the dark, and the next scene is a duplicate (not shot for shot, but still clearly a duplicate) of the final scene of the original. All the Stepford wives in their pastel dresses,* pushing shopping carts through the pastel grocery store, greeting each other in soft, pleasant, sing-songy voices. The final shot of this scene reveals Joanna as one of their number.
Lights up, movie's over, right? Not in the remake! The remake then moves on to a formal evening social event where it's revealed that Walter and Joanna didn't really go through with it. While Joanna (still acting like the perfect little housewife) dances with Mike, Walter runs off to the Men's Association and remotely undoes all the programing in all women's microchips. Once their programming is removed things get ugly pretty quickly, and in the chaos it's revealed that Mike is, in fact, a robot, and it's his wife who is the evil genius (and total nutter) behind Stepford. This whole end sequence? This whole end sequence is a "bright" idea. And probably responsible for the whole microchip thing in the first place. While I find the idea of the microchip scarier than the robot idea, if it weren't for this, they could have simply given Joanna a different explanation of the process and ended the movie with the supermarket scene.
Now, this ending could have worked--or at least come much closer to working--if they had edited out all the robot clues and replaced them with other clues about mind control and what have you. It could have worked (better) if they'd simply cut the grocery store scene. Even without having seen the original, that scene feels like the ending. There was no call for including that scene and not ending the movie right there.
*And, in the case of the remake, one Stepford husband in a respectable 3 piece suit.
The original moved a bit slowly, at least at first, but was a far superior story. Although the concept has aged well, the movie itself has not. The evil mastermind is, of course, Dis (pronounced "dizz"). The very first time we meet him, it's revealed that the nickname comes from his former employer, Disney. When describing the automaton behavior of the wives of Stepford, Joanna (our heroine) says they're like "the robots at Disneyland." This is good storytelling, but to an audience 30+ years later, the robots at Disneyland are rather a joke. Similarly, the housewives that need so much improvement are still, well, housewives. These days any family where the man goes to work and the woman stays home to keep house and raise the kids is practically the Cleavers. What's to fix?
I can see why someone felt it was time for a remake. And they did have a few really good ideas for updating the story. And, as my old directing professor would say, they had a lot of really bright ideas, as well. At first glance, a bright idea looks, for all the world, like a good idea, and gods, but don't you feel clever for having thought of it. The key is sorting out all the clever "bright" ideas from the genuinely good ideas. They didn't do that with their remake.
Of the non-robot wives we meet in the first half of the original, only two remain in the remake: Joanna and her best friend Bobbie. The third is replaced by a the flamboyantly gay Roger (and her husband replaced by a log cabin republican). They've changed Joanna from a part-time photographer/full-time stay-at-home mom to a career-driven tv exec who recently lost her job as the result of a scandal. She and her family move out to Stepford for a new start, and Joanna--left to fill the role of housewife--is finding very little fulfillment there. Bobbie has also moved up in the world and, while she does stay at home with the kids, it's only because she can write her wildly successful novels at home just as easily as anywhere else. A few scenes inside her home reveal it to be an absolute pig sty, every surface covered in who-knows-what. The personalities of all three women (including the one who is now a man) stay more or less in tact.
So far I'm with them. The characters have been updated in a way that makes sense both for the story that's about to unfold and for the era in which these women live. As far as I'm concerned, these were good ideas. Except maybe Roger. It's not a BAD idea, it just seems like an unnecessary complication. But even so. I'm basically still with them here.
The remake also had the benefit of better make-up, lighting, film techniques, etc. In the remake, the wives of Stepford really do seem just a little too perfect to be real. It's possible they seemed this way in the original as well, but for me, it was hard to see past the grainy film quality and the ridiculous, ruffle-y 70s sense of "ideal housewife" fashion.
The remake had one more good idea which was, unfortunately, terribly executed. When Mike (Dis's 2004 counterpart--and short for "Microsoft" for no good reason whatsoever) reveals to Joanna how it's all done, it's explained that there is no robot replica. The wives of Stepford have simply had their behavior modified by means of a few microchips in their brain. I continue to think this is a good idea. It seems somehow far more modern and more practical than making the robot replicas (how do you program in all their memories? What do you do with the bodies?). It also seems far more horrific. Don't get me wrong, being replaced by a robot is pretty awful... but having your own behavior modified, being trapped inside your own head all that time? Way worse in my opinion. At least the other way you're not around to see what happens.
However, this single good idea was also the movie's worst enemy. It's like they thought of it halfway through production, but didn't go back to make the proper edits. When one of the wives goes haywire on the dance floor, Joanna sees her give off sparks. When the plot is revealed to her husband, Walter, one of the wives is seen dispensing cash like an ATM. After the process is revealed to her, Joanna and Walter leave with a bald, but otherwise perfect (and perfected) replica of Joanna--presumably the robot the original script called for her to be replaced with.
They disappear into the dark, and the next scene is a duplicate (not shot for shot, but still clearly a duplicate) of the final scene of the original. All the Stepford wives in their pastel dresses,* pushing shopping carts through the pastel grocery store, greeting each other in soft, pleasant, sing-songy voices. The final shot of this scene reveals Joanna as one of their number.
Lights up, movie's over, right? Not in the remake! The remake then moves on to a formal evening social event where it's revealed that Walter and Joanna didn't really go through with it. While Joanna (still acting like the perfect little housewife) dances with Mike, Walter runs off to the Men's Association and remotely undoes all the programing in all women's microchips. Once their programming is removed things get ugly pretty quickly, and in the chaos it's revealed that Mike is, in fact, a robot, and it's his wife who is the evil genius (and total nutter) behind Stepford. This whole end sequence? This whole end sequence is a "bright" idea. And probably responsible for the whole microchip thing in the first place. While I find the idea of the microchip scarier than the robot idea, if it weren't for this, they could have simply given Joanna a different explanation of the process and ended the movie with the supermarket scene.
Now, this ending could have worked--or at least come much closer to working--if they had edited out all the robot clues and replaced them with other clues about mind control and what have you. It could have worked (better) if they'd simply cut the grocery store scene. Even without having seen the original, that scene feels like the ending. There was no call for including that scene and not ending the movie right there.
*And, in the case of the remake, one Stepford husband in a respectable 3 piece suit.