The Stepford Wives
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: June 11, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
42
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
17
Negative:
14
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
38
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
A Frankenstein's monster of a movie: clumsy, patched together from parts that don't align properly, desperate to be loved, destined to be chased by mobs with pitchforks - those will be the critics - until it stumbles into its grave. Read full review
38
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
If the film is to work on any level, even a comedic one, it's necessary for the viewers to sympathize with Joanna and Walter. However, the script and scattershot performances keep them at arm's length. Nicole Kidman is in full scenery-chewing mode, and Matthew Broderick hasn't been this invisible since Ferris Bueller had to go back to school. Read full review
38
PremierePeter Debruge
Close is the best and worst thing about the film, delivering a performance that upstages even Christopher Walken (!), taking her over-the-top Cruella de Vil turn to its saccharine-sweet opposite. Read full review
30
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The movie takes a desperately wrong turn about 45 minutes in, and you can almost hear the great sucking sound as the whole thing churns down the drain in a swirl of narrative contradictions. Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
The result: an empty comedy that takes hackneyed potshots at consumerism. Read full review
30
Washington PostStephen Hunter
None of it appears to be well thought out, or thought through, and it's consequently never remotely believable. Read full review
30
Film ThreatKevin Carr
The story and themes behind The Stepford Wives are way past their time. They’re products of the 1960s. Read full review
30
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Rudnick is a wit, and his script allows everyone a decent one-liner or two. But the problem with one-liners is that they only last one line, leaving a whole movie around them that needs filling in. Read full review
30
Dallas ObserverGregory Weinkauf
Lured to the project with John Cusack as her original co-star (cruelly replaced by Matthew Broderick), Nicole Kidman phones it in. Read full review
25
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The film contains so many endings that it's hard to tell what impressions the filmmakers want us to leave the theater with. Buy a copy of the book instead. It remains an excellent read. Read full review
25
Portland OregonianKaren Karbo
So god-awful it falls into the category of needing to be seen to be believed. A purported satire of the 1975 camp horror classic, it succeeds in failing on almost every level, including knowing what it's actually satirizing. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
There is no tonal consistency from scene to scene, swinging from domestic drama to farce. Most of the actors -- especially Matthew Broderick -- look lost. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Misbegotten is the only way to describe this remake of the 1975 film based on Ira Levin's cultural-zeitgeist novel. Read full review
10
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
A pitiful shambles of a remake, The Stepford Wives might have qualified as a rethinking of the 1975 original if there were any trace of coherent thought in the finished product.
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