Post by BIGFANBOY on Jan 2, 2009 5:22:09 GMT -5
REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
Review by Gary Dean Murray
Sam Mendes made quite a name for himself with American Beauty. That film, about the failure that is suburbia, is very much a statement of its times both in style and substance. Though it doesn't 'hold up' and make a lasting impression as being the best film of that year, it does have its critical champions. Today, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree as Mr. Mendes mines much of the same themes in his latest attack on the maudlin nightmare that is suburbia in his newest movie, Revolutionary Road.
Our film opens in the late 1940's where April (Kate Winslet) and Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) meet at a NYC party. She is an aspiring actress and he is another post-WWII vet who is unsure about where to take the next phase of his life. As they dance, they fall in love. He tells her of his stay in Paris and how everyone seems to be alive there.
Flash forward to the early 1950's and the two are settled down in Connecticut suburbia. Frank is a drone at the Knox Corporation, the same business machine firm where his father had worked. April is the stay at home mom but still tries to be an actress, even on the local community theater level. The next time we are exposed to them, they are in a bitter fight. It is obvious that this is not the first spat they have had nor will it be the last. Frank hates his job and hates that being a husband and father of two has slowed his potential. April feels like she is trapped in the snare of suburbia.
When cleaning the house, April finds a picture of Frank in Paris in front of the Eiffel Tower. She decides that the family needs to be shaken up and persuades Frank to just chunk it all and everyone moves to France. Can we sing “April in Paris”?
She convinces him that she can get a job as a secretary, bringing in the money as he figures out his place in life. This upturn turns the lives of everyone involved on a fulcrum teeter. The neighbors just cannot believe that anything in France is worth the travel. Frank's co-workers also have a hard time coming to grips with this foreign idea. It also seems that he has some extramarital activities in the city. As they are going to find out, it 'takes backbone to lead the life you want to'.
This all flies forward to the eventual date of departure and the not so surprising shocks along the way. There is an agenda lurking just below the surface of Revolutionary Road that is there to make a very political statement that Hollywood just can't help but make. Kate and Leo do make a great screen couple, with Ms. Winslet being the strongest of the two as far as acting chops go. She doesn't just take over her scenes, she commands attention. Her every move seems planned and deliberate. This is one of our finest performers at the top of her game. This is also easily Leonardo DiCaprio's best performance. His clean cut good boy looks have always hampered his career as an actor just as it has made him a movie star. Here he finally gets to be a character and not just the pretty boy playing dress up. A real set of emotions are a part of this turn. He channels cool Sinatra even down to making cigarette smoking being the end all be all. Besides his Buick is just pregnant dogin'.
The supporting cast is filled with talent from Kathy Bates as the real estate agent dealing with a mentally ill son, to Zoe Kazan as the object in Frank's fleeting eye. Mendes can cast a film well and has done so many times before. But the basic problem with Revolutionary Road is in the script. It is adapted from a book by Richard Yates that was written over forty years ago. At the time, this idea of suburban disappointment was fresh and exciting. With the succeeding decades, this idea has more than run its course. Just about every film made in the 1960's tackled this theme in every way. There are only so many ways one can take on a subject and keep it fresh, and this story is about as insightful to a modern audience as is a 78 rpm record player user guide is. The precises of 'it takes real guts to see the hopelessness' is as trite as it is quaint. And since no one in the work is a sympathetic character, it is hard to feel anything for any character in this study.
If Revolutionary Road had been made closer to the time is was set in, there might have been a bit more relevance. But the idea of wasted suburbia and the horror of being average has been done to death. In the final analysis, this is just another attempt to tear down all that the greatest generation strives to make, and to reinforce that the 1960's was the only important era.
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