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User Comments:
Date: 8 June 2004
Summary: In an attempt to give the audience something new to chew on, and try to make this already covered terrain their own, Oz and Rudnick ruined what was so effective about the original...
After being fired from her cushy network television job, Joanna Eberhart (Nicole Kidman, burying her good looks for a refreshing change) falls into a deep depression. Her husband, Walter (Matthew Broderick), has an idea to move to a small, gated community, known as Stepford, to forget their troubles. Once there, Joanna begins to notice something odd about the bizarre, desperately obedient housewives (including Faith Hill and Glenn Close) that populate the town. Teaming up with her 'normal' neighbors (Bette Midler and Roger Bart), Joanna begins to piece together the puzzle of why the men (including Jon Lovitz and Christopher Walken) hold all the cards in this luxurious town.
Based on the novel by Ira Levin, 'The Stepford Wives' was previously adapted into a 1975 film, starring Katherine Ross. There, the themes of the novel, along with metaphors about the ERA, were free to roam in that highly strange, part horror, part science fiction tale. The 2004 version is a bastardization of the original concept, remade in a way in which the filmmakers desired originality, but didn't want to do the heavy lifting. In place of suspense, metaphors, and horror, 2004's 'Stepford' is campy, erratic entertainment. Nobody wins in this upgrade.
This farce is to be expected, as it comes from the keyboard of Paul Rudnick, the screenwriter behind 'In & Out,' 'Jeffrey,' and the reprehensible, 'Marci X.' Rudnick has never been one to turn away from wild, campy material, and the man loves his shtick. The new 'Stepford' feels like a Catskills comedian, dying slowly on stage under a boiling spotlight; it's filled with tacky jokes about dumb blondes, reality TV, Connecticut, and AOL, not to mention peppered with screaming queen gay stereotypes (a Rudnick specialty). If Rudnick had directed this movie, it would be a cast of drag queens as the wives. The focus doesn't seem to be on the title characters, but more on what pop culture reference rimshot joke will come next, which certainly takes away from the mysterious air of the story. All director Frank Oz can do is throw his hands up in the air and allow Rudnick's atrocious screenplay to steamroll the original storyline, literalizing Rudnick's burlesque (Roger Bart plays the homosexual character, cloaked in lavender and pink, tossing fey body language without moderation) as thoroughly as he can.
The first 45 minutes of this 90-minute feature set up the central idea of the tale, and allow Rudnick to camp it up wildly through his myriad of characters and ideas. But when the science fiction elements take over, and the film starts to become a little more reminiscent of the source material, the picture drops dead. Oz can't balance between the two tones, and gets a little too heavy-handed with the fantasy elements. The salt in the wound is Rudnick's attempt to one-up the original story by adding a twist to Levin's already infamous twist. The new angle to the 'Stepford' tale comes out of nowhere in the finale and the reasons behind it are sketchy at best, along with the rest of the hastily edited second half. In an attempt to give the audience something new to chew on, and try to make this already covered terrain their own, Oz and Rudnick ruined what was so effective about the original. ------- 4/10
(위의 글을 혹시 영문 독해 실력을 테스트 해보고 싶으신분 읽어 보시구요)
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금요일 오후, 일을 마치고 돌아온 신랑왈,....일주일 동안 아이들과 씨름 하느라
고생 했으니까 오후에 나가서 머리좀 식히고 오라고...
그런데 솔직히 꼼작을 하기가 싫다. 그리하여 겨우 극장까지 가서 시원하게 에어콘 나오는 곳에서 앉아서 편안하게 영화를 보기로 결정..
영화는 The Stepford Wives로 정하고.
그런데 정말 이 영화가 예상을 밖 이었다.
하지만 93분 동안 에어콘 시원하게 나오는 극장안에서 샌드위치와 콜라 마시면서 히어링 테스트 하는 기분으로 가볍게 본 영화.
남편이 원하는 아내
자기 주관이나 의사 표현 없이, 그저 여성잡지의 인테리어 코너에 나오는 것 같이 집을 치장하고, 완벽하게, 요리와 육아 그리고 섹스까지 완벽하게 해내는 아내...
75년에 만든 작품을 코메디로 각색한 이 영화는 코메디도 아니고 페미니즘 영화도 아니고 게다가 웬 사이보그까지...
주말이라서 1파운드까지 더 올려주고 보기에는 좀 본전 생각이 나지만
남자들이, 남편들이 봐 주었음 싶은 영화다.
참, 금강산도 식구경 일까
금강산도 식후경 일까.................그것이 알고 싶다
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http://kr.blog.yahoo.com/gayong19/trackback/1159673/862027
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