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Blu-ray review: Revolutionary Road
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The two most depressing people you will ever meet.
Ah, the 50s. When women were relegated to aprons and child rearing, spending their days chain smoking in the kitchen while they practiced perfection. Men wore cool hats, got drunk at work all day, and came home to tasty Shake n' Bake. But for April and Frank Wheeler, that sort of life left much to be desired.
In Revolutionary Road, the Wheelers are a young couple who once had visions of grandeur - of something more, something different. April wanted to be an actress, and Frank, like most people in their twenties, had no idea what he wanted to do. Yet, they find themselves trapped in suburbia when April pops out a couple of kids and Frank starts working for the same company his father once worked for.
They both feel an emptiness that neither of them can escape, each trapped in their own way. April feels like her children have trapped her in this suburban housewife hell, while Frank feels like taking up his father's mantle to support the family has forced him into a career he didn't choose.
One night, on Frank's thirtieth birthday, April suggests they move to Paris. Frank had always talked so romantically about the culture, and April feels like it's their last chance to salvage what little of themselves they have left. Perhaps if they move to Paris, away from the suburban shackles that hold them down, they can be happy. Unfortunately, the perfect storm of coincidence and poor judgment comes together over the course of this one summer, threatening to finally destroy their marriage for good.
With the pairing of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road seems like a follow up to Titanic - in a way, it is. Instead of two people in love and fighting odds on a sinking ship, it's two people in love and fighting the odds within themselves in a sinking marriage.
The characters in this film are the most miserable people you could ever meet. They complain that they feel trapped, claustrophobic, and they search for the magic glue that will put all their pieces back together. What April and Frank fail to understand is that they've done this to themselves. Through all of their complaining and finger-pointing, they refuse to examine what they've done to each other. Enter their realtor's son, John.
John is a mathmetician who has been committed to a psychiatric facility. He isn't bound by societal conventions and manners. April invites John, with his mother and father, to lunch one day at his mother's behest. His mother is trying to reintroduce him to society, finding the Wheelers to be a nice couple close to her son's age that he could possibly learn something from; however, John sees through their put-ons and fake smiles, and doesn't hesitate to immediately call them out on their problems.
Michael Shannon's portrayal of John is unnerving. He's like this little hurricane, coming into a pressure-filled tank, shaking everything up and pushing the tightly-wound couple to the brink. At first they feel attracted to his candor, overlooking his mental problems and finding him to be brilliantly misunderstood. Upon a second visit during a particularly rough day for the couple, however, his observations are less kind, leaving the already teetering Wheelers completely devastated. Shannon's performance is the best of the entire film. He rattles the cage with his brutal honesty, leaving no one untouched.
The acting is on par all around, but nothing that we haven't seen before from DiCaprio or Winslet. Kathy Bates as Mrs. Givings, the realtor, is enjoyable, and she seems to nail the traditional woman of the era.
Sam Mendes' directing is unflinching, giving the film a voyeuristic and intimate feeling. The music cues seem as though they came straight from American Beauty (another Mendes film), which leaves something to be desired. In terms of pacing, Mendes wastes no time jumping right into the conflict. There's no time spent setting up who these people are, how they met, and how they came to this tumultuous point in their lives; instead, Mendes gives his audience the benefit of the doubt, feeling no need to spell everything out letter by letter.
The end is simply heartbreaking, and in some ways, a relief. Something had to give, and when it finally does, it's a depressing release. And that's all this movie is - empty, depressing people, trying to escape the void of despair and hopelessness, searching for meaning, and trying to defy convention. It's been done to death, but Revolutionary Road manages to defy its own conventions with a great cast and the help of Michael Shannon.
You don't necessarily need to watch it in Blu-ray, unless you're a masochist and long to see every tear drop and emo look between April and Frank in pristine quality.
Revolutionary Road (2008)
Rated: R
Genre: Drama
Formats: DVD, Blu-ray
Running time: 119 minutes
Starring: Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Shannon, Kathy Bates, Kathryn Hahn
Written by: Justin Haythe (screenplay), Richard Yates (novel)
Directed by: Sam Mendes
You can rent this at Netflix, or buy it at Amazon.
See also: Movie Examiner review
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