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Revolutionary Road (Sam Mendes, 2008)
Richard Yates' 1961 novel is turned into a well-crafted, well-acted commentary about married people living out their lives basically apart. The young couple, Frank Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his wife April (Kate Winslet) have been married for 10 years and have two children. Frank has a job working in an office building, but he doesn't feel fulfilled with his career. After April fails miserably at the center of a local play, she and Frank decide they should go for personal and married happiness and move to Paris, no matter how implausible the idea seems.
Revolutionary Road seems like it's some revisionist look back at the 1950s, but since the source material is almost 50 years old, this is not the case. Personally, I related to the themes of the movie, which I took to be (1) Very few people get a chance to do what they want in this life, at least to the point where they can support themselves and their family while doing it; (2) Marriages are often on autopilot, and the two parties often seem to be leading two completely separate lives where it's difficult to communicate openly with each other based on the fact that their concepts of emotional intimacy are different. Now, Brenda and I've been married a wonderful 21 years, and I believe that we have a strong marriage, but both of those topics have affected us at times. What separates this film from other similarly-themed films of recent years is that the dialogue is much stronger and more believable between the couple. True, I told my daughter Sarah that all you really need to do is watch five minutes of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and you'll get the gist of this film, but then you get the Greek Chorus of Michael Shannon, playing a truly unique character, who also offers up some sharp dialogue about the Wheelers' lives and dreams, how "crazy" they may be, and how they relate to the "Real World".
Richard Yates' 1961 novel is turned into a well-crafted, well-acted commentary about married people living out their lives basically apart. The young couple, Frank Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his wife April (Kate Winslet) have been married for 10 years and have two children. Frank has a job working in an office building, but he doesn't feel fulfilled with his career. After April fails miserably at the center of a local play, she and Frank decide they should go for personal and married happiness and move to Paris, no matter how implausible the idea seems.
Revolutionary Road seems like it's some revisionist look back at the 1950s, but since the source material is almost 50 years old, this is not the case. Personally, I related to the themes of the movie, which I took to be (1) Very few people get a chance to do what they want in this life, at least to the point where they can support themselves and their family while doing it; (2) Marriages are often on autopilot, and the two parties often seem to be leading two completely separate lives where it's difficult to communicate openly with each other based on the fact that their concepts of emotional intimacy are different. Now, Brenda and I've been married a wonderful 21 years, and I believe that we have a strong marriage, but both of those topics have affected us at times. What separates this film from other similarly-themed films of recent years is that the dialogue is much stronger and more believable between the couple. True, I told my daughter Sarah that all you really need to do is watch five minutes of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and you'll get the gist of this film, but then you get the Greek Chorus of Michael Shannon, playing a truly unique character, who also offers up some sharp dialogue about the Wheelers' lives and dreams, how "crazy" they may be, and how they relate to the "Real World".