Revolutionary Road

A young couple living in 1950's suburbia think they are different from all the other families living the American Dream. Although, they soon find out that not every dream comes true and they fall exactly into the situations they didn't want to be in. Their marriage is falling apart, they have trouble raising their children and they want out of this lifestyle.

Sam Mendes is a filmmaker who knows exactly what he wants, which is why he would want to work on this film. Revolutionary Road is probably his least interesting film, story wise. After-all, it's just about two people who try to cope with their lives. There is no motivational plot to it, but the thing about this film is that it doesn't need one. We are getting a glimpse into the lives of two people who had big dreams and realized that they had to sacrifice them in order to live their lives. It's sad, but it also rings true.

The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, as the married couple who constantly fight. Everyone called this film the "What If Jack and Rose Ended Up Together" movie. Yet it is so much more than that. They give powerful performances, which unfortunately were overlooked during the Oscar season. Another Titanic star, Kathy Bates, gives her support to the couple as the real estate agent who thinks the world of them. She has a son, who is mentally unstable and asks to bring him over for dinner one night. Michael Shannon plays the son and he steals both scenes he is in. For a guy who is deemed insane, he is the only one who speaks the truth.

I watched this flick because so many people told me how depressing it was. While it was depressing I didn't find it to be that bad. The most depressing aspect of the film is how relatable it is to real life. This story happens everywhere and that is the sad part.

The cinematography is great, the 1950's feel was spot on and really gave the film more of a cinematic sense of wonder to it. Roger Deakins seems to know exactly what is needed for every film he takes on. The look and feel of the film here is so simple, yet so beautiful at the same time.

Finally, I can see why people may not like this film. It's definitely an acquired taste. I was not in love with it by any means and for those involved it's not their best work. Instead it's a film to enjoy once. I wouldn't bother watching it again because the pace is long and I feel that I won't be as engaged a second time.

On a final note, why do guys from the 1950's only last about 15 seconds?

Having been a 50s housewife with children at home and a husband who wanted to be anywhere but there, this movie was familiar territory. How many of us in those years simply packed our dreams away for the immediate necessity of putting food on the table and paying the mortgage? Di Caprio is outstanding, as is Winslet, she having to deal with an American accent along with the tearing emotions. I didn't see that anyone picked up on the final scene, of Kathy Bates and her husband, but to me that was the whole moral of the story - here is where you will end up if you give in to what you know is not right for you. Overall, though, well done - except women in the 50s did NOT wear hats to work!!

Revolutionary Road is not a very joyful film, or is it easy to watch. Instead of being simply entertaining, it achieves what not many films these days do. It wants to be a learning lesson.

This film is superbly crafted, in both the writing and the amazing direction by Sam Mendes. After his great film 'American Beauty', he comes back with strong will to do this project. His direction is the best of the year for sure. It feels so professional, so alive. The writing, both of the characters, Frank and April Wheeler, I feel they are so open and 3-dimensional characters, but the screenplay wants to let us inside their lives, and it does so with great passion. Leonardo Dicaprio plays Frank with such intensity, with such force. Dicaprio gives his best performance here without a doubt, since I don't really think he has ever done something like this before. Then there is Kate Winslet. My favorite actress, and certainly one of the most talented out there. Winslet has surprised me before in a lot of movies, but here, she surprises me in a whole other way. Her silent, unlikeable, and sometimes human and cold portrayal of April Wheeler is one of the best performances of the decade. She gives the best female performance of the year, and I truly hope she finally wins the Oscar she deserves.

The film itself is so beautiful, so alive, yet at the same time, so dark to what the film is about. The cinematography is amazing, as well as the costumes and the whole set designs. The music, the original score, was so unsettling, perfectly balanced to what each scene brought.

Revolutionary Road is not a film for everyone. I can definitely see some critics will hate it, but it should certainly be respected, for its ambition, for the things it accomplishes and every thing it portrays. I think this is Mendes' masterpiece. I have not seen a better made film this year.

The Titanic lovers, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, get reunited for Revolutionary Road a tale of sterile life in the suburbs during the Eisenhower years. Not that this is anything new, the subject was done as comedy and as drama in such diverse films way back then as Rally Round The Flag Boys and Strangers When We Meet.

It's a nice story, but not one I could terribly worked up about. So Leonardo is working for some firm as a sales rep and it's a job he hates. Good for him, 90% of the American work force are in jobs that are just paychecks to support themselves and their families. Which Leo and Kate increased by two during the course of the film.

Seeing themselves in a rut, Kate lets fly the brilliant suggestion that he just quit and move to Paris. Not only that he should just 'find himself' and she'll work and support and raise the kids and him. Leo likes the idea, but then gets cold feet and it goes downhill from there.

Leo and Kate are fine, but the film just is not up to the standards set by Titanic. I sure cared a lot more about Jack and Rose than I did about either of the Wheelers. Nevertheless Revolutionary Road which is the name of the street the Wheelers live on in the film, got three Oscar nominations including one for Michael Shannon as the bipolar son of the Wheeler's neighbor Kathy Bates who sold them the house. Nowadays Shannon would be on his meds and leading a more productive life than he is here. Shannon lost for Best Supporting Actor to Heath Ledger for the Dark Knight.

Revolutionary Road is entertaining, but hardly groundbreaking.

I went to see this at an advanced screener in Leicester Square last night. Kate Winslett chatted about the film on stage afterward. I went as one of those people who'd read the book and consider that source material to be amongst the best literature I'd ever read. I was wondering if and how the film could match up. My prior concerns were about how accurate the film would be. Well, there's nothing to worry about there. Mendes has created a near carbon copy of the book, the locations, characters and scenes are all exactly as I 'saw' them on the page. Nothing (as far as I could tell) is portrayed out of order, no extra characters are introduced, and no primary characters are dropped or altered. The acting is 100% perfect. The mies-en-scene is perfect. Absolutely nothing could or should have been done differently. So why not 10/10? The problem lies in the fact that Yates' novel is a literary one, much of the essence of the experience of the story is realized by Yates with just the right turn of phrase or choice of word. How does a director set about depicting or capturing this visually? I don't think he really can, he needs to use cinematic tricks and devices to inject resonance, the same resonance Yates achieves with that turn of phrase. But in being so (probably rightly) concerned about being true to the source material, the film somehow comes up a little flat as a film going experience, a sort of American Beauty without the crucial stylistic bells and whistles. Kate Winslett said afterward that (interestingly) it was she who had brought the book and the project to her husband, not vice versa and that it took some consideration for Sam Mendes to convince himself that he hadn't already told this story before, and by the final credits, I too was thinking just that, it felt like I'd watched a prequel to American Beauty, but without the pizazz and the rapture and the delight. So, the book, 10/10, the film, 8/10.