This star-studded drama about a woman convinced that life can be exciting and a husband who’s not is out-of-the-ordinary, to say the least. Kate Winslett and Leo DiCaprio—together again a decade after their wild success with Titanic—play a couple at a different stage of life. In the 1950s, the Wheelers have the American dream: a comfortable suburban home (complete with a ceramic pepper veggie and dip tray that would fetch a mint on EBay), two children, and a solid job with a solid company. Yet, it’s not the life they wanted. April was an aspiring actress; Frank was a former GI who’d travelled the world.
The day after a brisk argument in which the husband curses and the wife begs to be left alone, April does a bi-polar flip (complete with the pearls and black cocktail dress) and convinces Frank that what they really need is to LIVE in spite of the fact that they have kids and responsibilities. So, they tell their friends they’re heading to Paris, where April will work and Frank will have the time to find himself. (Not clear on what will happen to the kids.) Sound like something the grey felt suits of the 50s would approve of? Not so much.
Meanwhile, the real estate agent (the indomitable Kathy Bates) who sold them their Revolutionary Road home has a son who’s in the funny farm. She asks the Wheelers (everyone says they’re a great couple) to meet him. John (played masterfully by Michael Shannon) is insane, yet he is the voice of sanity to the Wheelers.
Over the course of a long, hot summer April packs their belongings, but Frank sets down new roots. As Thoreau wrote, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” The Wheelers—though they both don’t know it—are desperate.
Coming off her Academy Award win for The Reader, Winslett is again spot-on. Her husband, Academy-Award winning director Sam Mendes, has helped create an intense, emotional drama. DiCaprio (by turns brooding, patronizing, and tender) gives an incredible performance as well. The special features on the disc are limited to a commentary by the director and screenwriter, a “making-of” documentary, and some deleted scenes. Honestly, though, I’m not sure what else they could have added.
Revolutionary Road is a complicated film. It’s about conforming to the expectations of society and yourself. It’s about relationships, and how easy it is to smudge the truth…and the great distances that grow up when honesty is not even in the picture. It’s about justifying and manipulating and playing the martyr. It asks what to do when you wake up and realize this isn’t the life you wanted. And, just like in real life, there’s no good answer.
Reviewed by Adrin Fisher
