I watched the original Stepford Wives last night. It is a bit different from the new version that came out a couple of weeks ago. The original is supposed to be more of a suspense/thriller type movie where the tension builds throughout the film. We get hints of something strange going on in Stepford, that the women are different, strange...perhaps even robotic? (hmmm)
I understand that the original film is working with a different era and that it plays into (or with) the feminist movement by showing that deep down, all men really want is a "Stepford Wife" who has the singular aim to please her husband and have no thoughts to herself other than keeping a clean house. Men would go so far as to replace their wives with robots.
And with all the build in this movie to these "dramatic" moments in the end...it isn't really an effective movie. Actually, it is a bit on the boring side. The women who are "acting" like robots don't seem to do a very good job with it (except for the scene where Bobbie goes on the fritz). Since we never really get the male motivation at all in the movie, for any of it, it seems so false. Plus the acting and some of the dialogue isn't that good.
It makes me wish even more than the updated Nicole Kidman version was able to make up its mind about what the wives are and have a more honest ending, because it would have been everything the original wasn't: such as, a good movie. Granted, the new version could never have had the same psychological impact of the original. The 00's are much different than the mid 70's and the social consciousness is much different now than it was then, but...i'm just disappointed.
As we said last night, "I'm sorry that it sucked."
No comments:
Post a Comment