The Stepford Wives is a 2004 American science fiction black comedy film directed by Frank Oz from a screenplay by Paul Rudnick and starring Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler, Christopher Walken, Faith Hill, and Glenn Close.

Upon the loss of her job, Joanna suffers a mental breakdown and she, her husband Walter Kresby, and their two children move from Manhattan to Stepford, a quiet Fairfield County, Connecticut suburb.

After the family's arrival, Joanna befriends writer and recovering alcoholic Roberta "Bobbie" Markowitz and Roger Bannister, a flamboyant gay architect who has moved to town with his long-time partner Jerry, a corporate lawyer.

The next day, Joanna, Bobbie, and Roger go to Sarah's home to check up on her, where upon entering, they hear her upstairs, ecstatically screaming during sex with her husband Herb.

The next day, the pair discover Roger's flamboyant clothing, Playbill program from Hairspray, and memorabilia of Orlando Bloom and Viggo Mortensen have all been discarded.

Next, all of the Stepford spouses, including Joanna, Bobbie, and Roger, are dazedly shopping at the grocery store dressed in classy Sunday attire.

During the festivities, Joanna distracts Mike and entices him into the garden, while Walter slips away to the transformation room where he destroys the software that programs the women.

Six months later, in an interview with Larry King, Joanna (who has won six Emmys for producing the hard-hitting documentary Stepford: The Secret of the Suburbs), Roger (who has won his State Senate seat as an Independent) and Bobbie (who has written and published her first book of poetry Wait Until He's Asleep, Then Cut It Off) explain that the Stepford husbands are under house arrest for their crimes and being "retrained".

[5] Joan had previously appeared in two other films written by Rudnick, Addams Family Values and In & Out (the latter also directed by Frank Oz, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award).

Reportedly, there were problems on-set between Oz and stars Nicole Kidman, Bette Midler, Christopher Walken, Glenn Close and Roger Bart.

[15] Pete Travers of Rolling Stone said that the on-set complications of the film "can't compare to the mess onscreen.

"[17] A. O. Scott of The New York Times said, "the movie never lives up to its satiric potential, collapsing at the end into incoherence and wishy-washy, have-it-all sentimentality.