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
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Because the entire audience knows what's going on, the filmmakers hope to distract viewers from storytelling weaknesses with an urgent sense of style. Read full review
60
VarietyBrian Lowry
Another "remake" that merits the title in name only, The Stepford Wives isn't the "troubled" disaster that media reports have suggested it might be, yet nor do its oddly matched parts ever congeal into a fully formed creation. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
If the filmmakers had made a point of satirizing the new makeover culture in ways that went beyond camp jibes at décor and suburbia, they might have come up with a classic. Read full review
60
EmpireKim Newman
It’s funny, wonderfully performed by all, visually inventive. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
The film's creepier moments are pathetically weak, and its thematic update fails to attain the minimal credibility that even a wild farce needs to sustain itself. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
At no time do the men -- that is, the straight ones -- believably hold the upper hand. In the new town of Stepford, there's no bitterness, no struggle, no competition, none of the scars of the sexual revolution. There's just gay apparel. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Close gets laughs, as does Bette Midler as a Jewish rebel. But the sting is gone. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Isn't so much bad as it is puny: a sporadically amusing, occasionally funny, but ultimately bland and pointless time killer. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Only Close, in a majestically, maniacally brittle demonstration of Stepford overdrive, has the courage to show how nutty the pursuit of domestic perfection is. In this mess of a film, she is perfection. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Great casting ideas, like Glenn Close and Christopher Walken as "the King and Queen of Stepford," don't pay off, because the filmmakers' increasingly desperate twists alter the basis of the characters. Read full review
50
New York PostMegan Lehmann
Boasts a stellar ensemble cast and some priceless one-liners -- but those pearls of acerbic wit have been strung together on a cheap piece of thread which almost inevitably breaks in the third act. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Before it degenerates into a complete mess, it's an entertaining mess, and something about its willingness to please maintains the audience's goodwill throughout. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesManohla Dargis
It was somebody's nitwit idea to rip out the story's guts and brains for a sour sellout of a finale -- which finds the filmmakers behaving exactly like Stepford men and turning an original into a dummy. Read full review
40
The New York TimesDana Stevens
It does manage to fire off a handful of decent jokes and a few sneaky insights before losing its nerve and collapsing into incoherence. Read full review
40
SalonStephanie Zacharek
The picture is mildly entertaining and stringently unoffensive (provided you're not a supersensitive upper-crusty type from Connecticut). Yet it has problems from the start. Read full review
40
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Almost desperate to show it gets its own point. What's funny is that the joke--"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" reconfigured as anti-feminist backlash--was scarcely fresh when Bryan Forbes shot the first movie version nearly 30 years ago. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Unfortunately this is much tamer than it had to be--Rudnick Lite, meaning on the edge of evaporation. Read full review
More From This Movie

42 Critic Reviews

3.6 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 77 Project Hail Mary
2 75 Send Help
3 73 Hoppers
4 72 The Sheep Detectives
5 68 Crime 101
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL