REVOLUTIONARY ROAD

How do we judge and decide quality film making? Does a powerful movie shake us up inside and cause us to see things differently? If you judge a good film on how you connect to the characters and understand their pain then Revolutionary Road delivers. This movie, symbolic and methodical, makes you think harder and dig deeper to see underneath the surface. Suburban life with the house and the white picket fence is flipped on its head.

Revolutionary Road is about the lives of Frank and April Wheeler, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. They are young, vibrant and full of promise. We see them meet at a party and instantly connect. She falls in love with him because he is a dreamer and wants to experience new things. He is full of ideas and, more importantly for her, he abounds with all of life’s possibilities.

Unfortunately, as their life goes on in marriage and a move to suburban Connecticut, an unhappy tension mounts. She feels stuck. Director Sam Mendes portrays this masterfully during an early scene when April is sad about the play she was in, another dream of her youth dismissed to a life of responsibilities. She gets trapped in this life of what the American dream is supposed to be, what most people think of “making it”. There is a realization of a hopeless, empty existence.

A change can be made and with that a dream of a better life in France. So they find happiness and develop a strong bond planning this trip and escaping suburbia. The trip was her idea and her chance to escape the empty future she saw coming. She wants to move to France to reverse their domestic roles and keep him home to decide his life while she goes out and works. They make grand plans but life happens to them. He traps her in by changing his mind, something he does often, and elects an easier, gutless path by not taking chances and doing the safe thing. He lowers his expectations and accepts the life in front of him, something she is simply not able to do. This was not the life she wanted.

He says early on “I want to feel things…I mean really feel them”. Well he feels life alright, but he didn’t receive what he thought life was going to deal out. Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it. She believed he would provide a wonderful and exciting life because he was so revolutionary, but he becomes a man that allows others to make his decisions for him by buying into the belief that dreams are unrealistic. She suffers because he gives up on the pursuit of that dream. He crushes her dream but he doesn’t understand or realize this until it is too late.

The performances of Winslet and DiCaprio are fantastic, and watching their world spin out of control is truly devastating. This is about the revolution of the American housewife. A sad and tragic tale of a woman realizing her life would not have any resemblance to the dream she had in mind.

This story mirrors life, unlocking a door to a spot in time that isn’t supposed to feel comfortable. And like life, there are many unhappy moments along the way. It is about dreams and the loss of those dreams. It is about individuality, freedom, and a revolt against the norm.


3-1/2 STARS