Revolutionary Road Review
by Steve Rhodes (steve DOT rhodes AT internetreviews DOT com)January 9th, 2009
REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2009 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2
After Kate Winslet's amazing lead performances in THE READER and in REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, it's quite possible -- and maybe even likely -- that she'll get two Oscar nominations this year. She certainly deserves them both, and, for the life of me, I cannot figure out which performance is the better of the two, since they are both great pieces of acting that you won't soon forget.
In REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, Winslet is paired with Leonardo DiCaprio for the first time since 1997's TITANIC, a film which could not be more different. While TITANIC is a big film with larger than life characters, REVOLUTIONARY ROAD is a character study about a couple struggling to find meaning in their suburban life.
REVOLUTIONARY ROAD's director Sam Mendes, whose AMERICAN BEAUTY and ROAD TO PERDITION are widely praised and loved, takes his keen sense of observation to the tree-lined streets of a bedroom community. In this town in New Jersey, carefully suited workers can be seen gathering in mass every morning to take the train into "the city" -- New York, of course -- to work in large, ugly skyscrapers. As they herd their way to their cubical dwellings, the workers share such similarly unhappy and lifeless facial expressions that they all look related.
The film's striking images will instantly remind you of THE MAN IN THE GRAY FLANNEL SUIT and of "Mad Men." Set in the summer of 1955, the movie takes great pains to get all of the cars, the costumes, the sets and even the tacky furniture just right. With long, liquid lunches, getting everyone sloshed in varying degrees, and with lots of smoking seen everywhere, it isn't a time of very healthy lifestyles. It is, however, a time of rampant moroseness.
April and Frank Wheeler (Winslet and DiCaprio) are seen as the perfect couple by their friends. They are an attractive, smart and talented couple with two good-looking kids and a nice house with a big front lawn. What is less clear is what their talents really are, and less clear still is what they really want to do with their lives.
Frank works in an office sales support job at Knox Business Machines in the city. His dad worked at Knox for twenty years, although no one at the firm remembers him anymore. The only thing that Frank was certain of while growing up was that he did not want to follow in his father's footsteps and join Knox. Frank spends his days whipping up bland memos that no one seems to care much about. And Frank certainly doesn't care that his readers don't care.
The ever-bored Frank finds his fleeting amusements however he can. After a drunken lunch with a woman from the typing pool, he takes her to a nearby apartment for an afternoon of sex, but it doesn't mean anything to him. He treats his cute but slightly pudgy conquest with disdain once he's finished with her. He might ask her out again, but, then again, he might not.
April once aspired to be an actress, but now she toils away as a housewife. When we first meet the Wheelers, they get into a huge argument after Frank ridicules the local, amateur play that April has been acting in. As they scream at each other in a parked car beside the highway, it appears that their marriage is so hopelessly on the rocks that it can't last past the story's first act.
But, when it soon becomes as obvious to the Wheelers as it is to us that their marriage is on a dead-end road, April comes up with a surprising and downright shocking idea. They should sell everything, including their house. Frank has always dreamed of moving to his beloved Paris, which he fell in love with during the war, so can find himself. April says that the foreign consulates pay top dollar for English speaking secretaries. She volunteers to support his dream by being the sole-bread winner for the family. Frank loves the idea.
Next seen on the way to work, Frank's smile is the only one in the crowd. Unlike his coworkers, he alone has figured out a way to break out of the trap. Back at home, Frank and April find that their new plan instantly rekindles their romance and their passion.
While Frank and April believe in their new dream, no one gets it. Shep and Milly Campbell (David Harbour and Kathryn Hahn), their next-door neighbors and best friends, think that the Wheelers have completely lost their minds.
So will the Wheelers follow through with their radical plan or not? As soon as the summer is over, they plan on leaving, and they are busy boxing things up. So the big move looks likely, but will events transpire to change their minds? If they stay, is there another way to restructure their lives in order to find fulfillment? But if they go, will they find that Paris is no panacea? Since they don't appear to care much about their kids or about each other, will living in a foreign city substantially change their relationship and improve their low happiness quotient?
I won't give away any of this. What I will say is that the film works best when it's the most depressing, especially in the subtle facial expressions that are used to convey vast amounts of emotional material. And, it's least successful when it amps up the volume and lets the leads shout at each other.
The writing is consistently sharp and biting. "If black could be made into white by talking, you'd be the man for the job," April tells Frank while laughing uncontrollably in sarcasm and derision. You may laugh some too during REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, since it can be funny at times, but you're much more likely to be devastated. This is a movie whose themes and characters will stay with you, since its raw emotions run deep and true.
REVOLUTIONARY ROAD runs 1:59. It is rated R for "language and some sexual content/nudity" and would be acceptable for teenagers.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, January 9, 2009. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Cinemark theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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