Anyone catch the Stepford Wives remake recently? If not, let me save you some trouble. Its comedy. Really, more a mockery of the original that a remake. Amusing and entertaining, I'll give it, but not quality cinema by any stretch.
It was cause for me to watch the original again, and the differences in overall style of moviemaking between the two were really noticable for me, in a way that spoke much of current Hollywood in general.
The original was subtle. It didn't insult your intelligence. Details were illuded to, not spoon fed to you in monologing explainations. You never once are told what is happening, you see the character figure it out and know from that. A fine example is the first night the husband comes home from the Men's Association, and stays downstairs drinking. He's clearly upset. He tells his wife that he loves her, emotionally. And you know from just that much that maybe he does, but he's already made the decison for murder and there's no going back. Even towards the end, your only explaination to How is the workplaces she drives by and her clearly wondering what could go on there. Good stuff, left to the viewer to piece together.
And it was creepy. There's a slow unraveling of characters. You're left with enough reason to believe that it might all still be madness, and when its too late to discount, its horifficly so.
In the remake, its blatently obvious the whole time and the point of jokes. There's a stupid CGI robot dog that was completely unnecessary.
The social commentary is mocked as well, but maybe that much I can understand. The original was powerful at the time because of the state of social movements. Today, there is enough equality that this can be a joke. Even the demasculination of the men of Stepford as whiny geeks was a pointed reversal of the power issues in the original. In a way, it was more an un-make than a re-make, in how much was reversed.
But I'll bet Bette Milder was jumping for her part. She was such the right choice for Bobby, and must have had a blast with it. |
