THE STEPFORD WIVES

Year: 2004
USA: Paramount Pictures
UK: UIP (UK)
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Christopher Walken, Bette Midler, Roger Bart, Faith Hill, Glenn Close, David Marshall Grant, Jon Lovitz, Lorri Bagley, Deanna Destito, Kate Drenckhahn, Colleen Dunn, Tom Riis Farrell, Dylan Hartigan, Jason Kravits, C S Lee, Matt Malloy, Lisa Masters, Tyler McGuckin, Tim Miller, Sebastian Rand, Nick Reidy, Peter J Rowan, Russ Russo, Kate Shindle, Robert Stanton, Colleen Sturtevant, Tony Torn, Christopher Evan Welch, Mike White, Emily Frankovich, Erika Woods, Dianne Zaremba
Director: Frank Oz
Country: USA
UK: 93 mins
USA Rated: PG-13 for sexual content, thematic material and language
UK Certificate: 12A contains moderate sex references
UK Release Date: 30 July 2004
USA Release Date: 11 June 2004


Synopsis

A subversive and comic look at rampant consumerism and the quest for perfection, THE STEPFORD WIVES exposes what it really means to be human by looking beneath the perfect veneer of an idyllic community nestled in our very imperfect world. Featuring an extraordinary cast, THE STEPFORD WIVES stars Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler, Christopher Walken, Faith Hill and Glenn Close in a comedic thriller about a community that dares to be perfect and learns that to err is human.

Joanna Eberhart (Nicole Kidman) thinks she's made it to the top of her world. The youngest president in the history of the EBS television network, she also has an attentive husband and two beautiful children. On the surface, Joanna's life appears to be, well, perfect... until one catastrophic day when it all comes crashing down around her. Fired from her job, her perfect marriage in trouble, unable to remember where her kids go to school, Joanna is starting to look like a candidate for electroshock therapy.

Yes, there's nothing like a nervous breakdown to make Joanna and her husband Walter (Matthew Broderick) re-examine their priorities, pack up the family and make a fresh start in the idyllic suburban paradise of Stepford, Connecticut.

But something strange is happening in the quaint little town of Stepford, and Joanna is suspicious. So is Bobbie Markowitz (Bette Midler), who recently moved to town with her irascible frat-boyish husband Dave (Jon Lovitz). And Roger Bannister (Roger Bart), an architect who came to Stepford hoping to save his rocky relationship with his conservative partner Jerry (David Marshall Grant), is wondering what's going on, too.

It's the wives. They're all like Claire Wellington (Glenn Close) - beautiful, happy and unusually creative with crafts. They can bake a cake, paint the house, mow the lawn, play with the kids and still greet their husbands in lacy lingerie at the end of a busy day.

Disturbed by the stunning but subservient women she meets in Stepford, Joanna grows increasingly uneasy. On the other hand, Walter couldn't be happier. He is especially impressed by the Stepford Men's Association, a fortress-like mansion in the center of town.

"This town, and the houses, and this place - it's like a dream," enthuses Walter. "Like the way life should be."

Until Joanna Eberhart gets in the way.

Stepford has a secret. All the wives are far too perfect and all the husbands are way to happy. THE STEPFORD WIVES is an update of the 1975 thriller of the same title and is a contemporary, sophisticated comedy.