A sly, deft makeover of Stepford’s famous wives

“The wives of Stepford have a secret,” reads the new poster. But after Ira Levin’s best-selling novel, the original 1975 movie and no less than three TV sequels, there’s little surprise left to “The Stepford Wives.”

This new version updates the story. Instead of wanting careers, these women have become too successful at having them, while many of their husbands yearn for domestic Barbies.

Credit screenwriter Paul Rudnick for wisely making the story a campy black comedy. The movie begins with a raucous satire of reality TV shows, the brain-children of tightly wound network executive Nicole Kidman. It’s the movie’s first sly joke – Kidman’s Joanna Eberhart already is a robot. After Joanna suffers career crisis and emotional meltdown, hubby Matthew Broderick takes her and the kids to Stepford, Conn., where the Stepford Men’s Association awaits them.

Kidman gives Joanna a sweet believability, while the ever-boyish Broderick seems equally at ease. Also good are Christopher Walken as the sinister brains behind the plot; Glenn Close as Walken’s freakishly cheerful wife; Bette Midler as Kidman’s ally; and Roger Bart as a gay Stepford “wife” who thinks a lot of this is, frankly, just fabulous.

Director Frank Oz seems less confident (there are missing transitions, leaps of logic and a lot of awkward pushing to jam on a happy ending). But Rudnick is the real thing. Overall, “The Stepford Wives” is proof that not every Hollywood movie is made by robots – and that even the biggest studios still can occasionally make a summer comedy that, while imperfect, still delivers – and doesn’t star Ben Stiller, a cartoon cat or poop jokes.