Review of Stepford Wives, The

Introduction

Joanna and Peter move from New York to Stepford to get away from the city and for the benefit of their children, but Joanna soon becomes very concerned about the behaviour of the women in the town - all of whom are just too perfect. Also of concern is the very odd men`s association, which Peter joins. Joanna makes friends with Bobby, another new arrival who shares her fears...

Video

The video comes in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen and is of pretty good quality given the age of the film with a stable image, which is free of dirt. The picture is a bit grainy, but remains quite crisp and detailed with good contrast compared to some others from the era.

The film is set in Connecticut and everything looks very good, even the quite awful seventies wallpaper and clothes that are on display!

Audio

The soundtrack comes in Dolby Digital Mono and does a good job of reproducing the score and dialogue, which is always clear and understandable.

Features

Extras on offer consist of a trailer and a seventeen-minute featurette.

The featurette seems to have been made for this DVD and features recent interviews with most of those involved in the film. For the most part, this is a quite interesting program, which details a lot of bad feeling due to differences of opinion between the writer and director, along with problems caused by certain aspects of the casting. It does sink to backslapping level occasionally, but there is nothing too vomit-inducing.

The disc is packaged in a black Amaray case - my review copy didn`t include an insert although presumably retails ones will.

Conclusion

The lack of special effects in The Stepford Wives are a blessing in disguise because the film has aged quite well unlike some other sci-fi thrillers of comparable age. The movie is very well made and this is backed up by strong performances across the board.

The story is also well told, and the movie doesn`t lose its way during the 115 minute running time, maintaining interest throughout. Although the story is quite chilling, the film most certainly is not, and is more like a comedy at times, which helps it twenty five years on - if it was too serious I doubt that it would be particularly enjoyable nowadays.

Video and sound are both reasonable, and the featurette is quite interesting.

Overall, the movie isn`t really the classic that some make it out to be, but it is reasonably enjoyable and well presented on this DVD. Now, where do I order my Stepford Wife from…