For months the gossip from “The Stepford Wives” set was awash in tales of temper tantrums, re-writes, re-shoots, and diva feuds. Kidman’s “on-set erratic behavior” was then usurped by Bette Midler’s ‘I’m ugly!’ tirades. Kidman was not, initially, said to be happy with Matthew Broderick has her co-star. This bit of messiness has been cleverly quashed by Kidman’s signing on to co-star in the movie version of Broderick’s huge Broadway box-office smash “The Producers.”

I have to agree: Broderick was the wrong choice.

You can obviously see that Kidman has zero chemistry with Broderick. In fact, she seems to look down at him with distain.

Broderick may indeed be sensational in “The Producers” but except for his terrific work in 1999’s ELECTION, he has failed to light up the big screen. With a weak husband and phantom children, Kidman shows off her sex appeal and charm in her scenes with co-stars Bette Midler and Roger Bart.

Since I know Kidman has two children I kept wondering as I watched her play a Mom: Who is raising her kids? Does she ever see them or are they “asset” children?

Kidman’s reed-thin body, all black wardrobe, and exaggerated speech pattern telegraph that her character, TV executive Joanna Eberhart, is a domineering, take-charge powerhouse who loves her work. After Joanna is fired from her hugely profitable network career, her VP wimp of a husband, Walter (Matthew Broderick), quits also. She has a breakdown and when she recovers, they move to a palatial home in suburbia. They have two phantom children.

The gated community of Stepford, Connecticut seems to be run fist-handed by Claire Wellington (Glenn Close) and her husband Mike (Christopher Walken). The women are sex-starved Barbie Dolls who worship their below-average husbands. Joanna bonds with the only two people in Stepford who are amused by the zealot homemakers that populate the town: Bobbie Markowitz (Midler), an argumentative Jewish shrew, and gay architect Roger Bannister (Roger Bart).

When Walter tells “whip-smart” Joanna that their marriage (no sex in a year should have been a clue) is collapsing she decides to become the perfect homemaker. Apparently, they can support their lifestyle on his salary. The forced transformation doesn’t hold and Walter decides to re-create Joanna as a robot-wife.

While the actors were insulting director Frank Oz, the writer, Paul Rudnick, was writing clever, stand-alone lines and throwing pages of script away. There is no cohesive story and too many obvious insults to the audience’s intelligence.

JUST ONE SPOILER AHEAD!

We are led to believe that the real wife is killed and an idealized robot version takes her place. This means all the men - in this comedy - have killed their wives. They have OJ’d their wives and replaced their children’s mother with a machine that is also an ATM. Walter might be a spineless, sexless dud but his hatred for Joanna sets her up for robotization. Then we find out that the wives are not actually robots but just programmed (but still impervious to fire!) And when they find out, they forgive their husbands and everyone lives happily ever after!

You can watch this movie and see the changes taking place in the script. You can subliminally see the fights! Kidman is too big a star to play a castrating ***** so her switch from corporate ***** to suburbanite is incongruous. Broderick is peeved Kidman doesn’t want him in her movie. Walken is collecting a paycheck and Midler doesn’t want to stand next to Kidman.

It’s an ugly premise to base a comedy on: Men unhappy with their successful, fearless wives resort to cruel measures to bring their wives under their heel. If Rudnick would have dealt more cleverly with the story, especially since we now all know about the Taliban’s treatment of enforced-hooded women, perhaps THE STEPFORD WIVES could have made a socially important statement about competitive relationships between men and women.

THE STEPFORD WIVES
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures present a Scott Rudin/De Line Pictures production

Credits:
Director: Frank Oz
Screenwriter: Paul Rudnick
Based on the novel by: Ira Levin
Producers: Scott Rudin, Donald De Line, Edgar J. Sherick, Gabriel Grunfeld
Executive producers: Ron Bozman, Keri Lyn Selig
Director of photography: Rob Hahn
Production designer: Jackson De Govia
Music: David Arnold
Co-producer: Leslie Converse
Costume designer: Ann Roth
Editor: Jay Rabinowitz

Cast:
Joanna Eberhart: Nicole Kidman
Walter Kresby: Matthew Broderick
Bobbie Markowitz: Bette Midler
Mike Wellington: Christopher Walken
Roger Bannister: Roger Bart
Sarah Sunderson: Faith Hill
Claire Wellington: Glenn Close
Jerry Harmon: David Marshall Grant
Dave Markowitz: Jon Lovitz
Charmaine: Lorri Bagley

MPAA rating PG-13
Running time -- 93 minutes