I really wanted to like this movie. Though I’ve still not seen the original, I’ve always loved the concept and I thought a cast and crew like this simply couldn’t fail. Well, the truth is, they don’t – but they do only scrape a pass.

I can’t really fathom what it is that didn’t work for me. The opening titles are great, David Arnold’s score is a major change for him and he does a great job. Bette Midler, Glenn Close and Nicole Kidman turn in great performances, particularly Midler.

I think maybe it’s the screenplay. It all just seems to happen to fast, without any real structure, no high points or low points, just a flow of the inevitable from start to fizzling finish. I’d say maybe it’s just that I knew too much of the story from the start, but the fact is, I didn’t: all I knew about The Stepford Wives was that it was to do with a town where the wives are robots (please tell me that’s not a spoiler), so there was plenty more for me to discover, yet none of it seemed surprising.

I don’t know what I expected really. A longer movie, maybe. Maybe another act.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 20th, 2004 at 10:17 am in Movie Reviews, unrated. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.