On Stepford Wives, past and present

The trailer for the Fozzy Bear Frank Oz remake of The Stepford Wives is available online. Filmbrain's initial reaction is: bah! First off, remakes are more often than not a mistake. It's not that Bryan Forbes' 1975 film is a masterpiece -- far from it, but it's very much a product of the era, and that is critical to the effectiveness of the story. In the mid-70's the women's liberation movement was in full swing. The happy homemaker of the 50's and 60's was suddenly questioning her role -- why did she have to be stuck at home being the perfect wife and mother? Why couldn't (and shouldn't) she enter the workforce? This, naturally, made suburban males nervous -- the comforts and security of the home life were suddenly threatened. The solution that the husbands come up with in The Stepford Wives is both chillingly horrific and darkly comedic. The film (along with the original novel by Ira Levin) is hardly feminist -- it's equally critical of the women's liberation movement as it is of the American male response to it. This was a brave thing to do in that period, and the film manages to succeed as both a horror and a comedy-- something that's difficult to achieve. How will the story play out in the early 21st century? While it's still true that many men would prefer a subservient automaton as a wife (as opposed to an independent, liberated equal), women in the wealthy towns of Connecticut hardly have the same concerns that they had back in 1975. Filmbrain read in an interview with star Nicole Kidman that the new version will be a straight out comedy, and it's evident when watching the trailer. This will most likely spell disaster. If a remake is inevitable, Filmbrain would prefer that it be even darker than the original -- the skewering even deeper. This would at least be more in tune with the original novel, rather than turning it into a fluff piece. Miss Piggy Oz's other attempts at comedy have been pretty lame (Bowfinger, anyone?), and Filmbrain can't think of a more inappropriate director for the material. Add to that the hack-writing style of Paul Rudnick (Marci X, Isn't She Great) and you're pretty much guaranteed a feel-good flop. Who knows -- maybe Nicole, Matthew Broderick and Christopher Walken can save this picture yet. No matter how good or bad the film is, Filmbrain will always have a soft spot for the original. Seeing Katherine Ross in her sheer nightgown a thousand times on HBO in the late 70's really helped him get through puberty. . .