Revolutionary Road

First, for the chemistry between Winslet and DiCaprio, Second - for the amazing performances of Kathy Bates and Michael Shannon. Not the last for the accuracy of recreated atmosphere. A splendid film because it seems escape out of script. And because it has the potential to be a film about its public. Each of us has dreams and regrets and desire of beginning. Each of us is confronted with decisions, responsabilities, duties. And the answer is not alwazs the best. So, a magnificent film about people, vulnerabilities, crisis and the cold solution.

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!!

Leonard DiCaprio and Kate Winslet star in "Revolutionary Road," a 2008 film directed by Sam Mendes. The film also features Kathy Bates and John Givings.

It's 1955. Frank and April Wheeler have been married seven years, live in the Connecticut suburb and have two children. Frank works for a company that his father worked for, and he hates his job. April is a stay-at-home mom who wanted to be an actress.

While it might look good on the outside, this isn't the life either one envisioned. But April has an idea. They have enough money saved so that they can move to Paris, a city Frank loves. She can get a job as a secretary, which pays very well over there, and Frank can stay at home and decide what he really wants to do with his life. It sounds possible but maybe not practical, though Frank ultimately agrees to it.

Frank can't seem to find the right moment to give his notice; and then April discovers that she is pregnant. What now? There are lots of layers in this emotionally resonant, magnificently acted film. It's very much a story of its time for several reasons. The first is that it's obvious that April suffers from very bad depression. Though post-war psychological problems were recognized, actual depression, especially in a woman, probably wasn't given much attention. It was the returning soldiers who had suffered trauma who had the psychiatric focus. If by some means she had been discovered to have clinical depression, the medicine was horrible.

The second thing is that it was 1955. The ideas of picking up and moving to Europe with your family and the woman as breadwinner were outrageous back then. Now, not so much.

The third reason is that April at least had an artist's mentality and an artist's way of looking at the world. In this world, we have the practical and the artist, as in the O'Neill play Beyond the Horizon, where one brother is a farmer and the other brother is a poet who dreams of going out to sea. The problem is, there's no way to kill those attributes, and if you try, you won't be happy. April shouldn't have been married, shouldn't have been living in the suburbs, and shouldn't have stayed home.

Frank is more practical, though he'd like to be different, would like to do something he loves, if only he knew what that was. April thought he was cosmopolitan, adventurous, and that together, they'd be special. The idea that they're not special is something she can't tolerate.

This is such a fascinating movie about life's disappointments, punctuated with some humor by Kathy Bates as Mrs. Givings, a loquacious woman, whose son (Michael Shannon) has been institutionalized. When he meets the Wheelers, he has an uncanny way of speaking exactly the truth no one wants to hear. Shannon does a fantastic job in these disturbing scenes.

A shattering movie. I like to be entertained in films. I feel like we all have so much to reality to face, why not be able to turn away from it - but a beautifully realized film like this about dysfunction - somehow, I don't mind.

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.

That 'Revolutionary Road' was directed by Sam Mendes (who directed the brilliant 'American Beauty' nine years earlier) and that it reunited two immensely talented actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet after 1997's 'Titanic' were reasons enough to see it.

'Revolutionary Road' may not be "revolutionary" and it is not perhaps a film that will be re-watched over and over by me. This said, there is so much to appreciate, there is no denying that it's incredibly well made and superbly acted. And to me and many others (though it is an understandably polarising film, the dark and unpleasant subject matter is not for everybody) it is a powerful and moving film, and one of the most realistic and truthful depictions of a struggling marriage on film.

Visually, 'Revolutionary Road' is wonderfully shot, bleak but also sumptuous, while the scenery and 50s production values are evocatively and handsomely rendered. Thomas Newman's music score is hauntingly hypnotic, achingly melancholic and at times ominous.

While at times stagy, the dialogue is insightful, making one really think about what it's saying (it has much to say and knows how to say it without preaching) and for many will wrench the gut and induce floods of tears. There is a little levity provided by Kathy Bates, that could have been ill-fitting but is pitched well. The story is deliberate, but the atmosphere is brilliantly evoked and there are many parts that have huge power and are emotionally devastating, especially in the latter parts.

Sam Mendes keeps things at an assured pace, keeps the atmosphere alive and doesn't undermine the chemistry between DiCaprio and Winslet in any way. DiCaprio and Winslet embody their roles, which are intentionally not the most likable, are very complex and very much compellingly real, and their chemistry is both tense and affecting. Winslet has the more complex one of the two and her performance is a heart-wrenching emotional roller-coaster, while DiCaprio gives an explosive turn especially in the fever pitch latter parts.

Michael Shannon proves himself to be a scene stealer as the brutally honest crazy nut, and Kathy Bates brings well-timed levity.

Overall, a powerful and moving film that is highly appreciated in many ways. 9/10 Bethany Cox