A messy, confused remake of the 1975 feminist horror comedy, in which the housewife-as-automaton metaphor is stretched almost unbearably thin. Nicole Kidman is the
headstrong heroine this time around, while director Frank Oz and screenwriter Paul Rudnick stumble updating the material. Kidman plays a ruthless career woman who gets sent to Stepford as her comeuppance, meaning the ultimate threat this time around isn’t tradition-minded men but corporate mother hens such as Martha Stewart.
