Dvd
Revolutionary Road
Sam Mendes (American Beauty) re-unites Kate Winslet & Leo DiCaprio, for the first time since Titanic days, as April and Frank Wheeler. They play a young couple living with their two children in a Connecticut suburb in the mid-1950s. The Wheeler's are successful but unsatisfied... Frank is stuck in a well-paid but boring office job and April still mourns the demise of her acting career.
Depressed by the mediocre sprawl of suburbanites who surround them, they impulsively decide to move to France where they'll regain the excitement and artistic sensibilities of their younger years. But this decision lays bare the fragility of their relationship.
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates, Michael Shannon
Directed by Sam Mendes ('American Beauty', 'Road To Perdition', 'Jarhead')
Written by Justin Haythe (based on the novel by Richard Yates)
Festivals & Awards Best Actress (Drama) for Kate Winslet - Golden Globes 2009.
Adaptation, Drama | 2hr 0mins | Rated (R16) | contains violence, offensive language & sex scenes | Origin: USA, UK | Official Site »
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Flicks review
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4
Having relationship issues? Well, be warned that Revolutionary Road tackles the politics of ‘settling down’ head-on, without flinching. It’s classy, it’s pretty, sometimes it’s even very, very funny, but not once does it release its grip on the theme.
Arguably the two most watchable Hollywood stars of their generation, Winslet and DiCaprio are at their peaks – nailing every difficult scene, feeding off each other, making the Wheelers seem as real as the seat you’re sitting in. It can’t have been easy for Sam Mendes to direct his wife (Winslet) in such an unrelenting exploration of marital dissatisfaction, but the result is well worth the Golden Globe she tearily scooped – and there are scenes in which she’s never looked more stunning. There’s a gorgeous poetic touch to the surroundings too – Mendes and DoP Roger Deakins turning a morning commute into something of a rat-race ballet and using garden sprinklers, dappled light and pastel tones to elegantly decorate the period settings.
Without wanting to reveal too much, the only problem is what you come away with once all the intra-marriage sparring is done and the credits roll. There are a lot of issues left hanging there, depressingly unresolved – as is often the case in real life. A brilliantly made film then, but if you’re planning on using it for a night out with your partner, sit tight, hold hands and be very, very nice to each other afterwards.
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The people's reviews
5 reviews
Press Reviews
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Chicago Sun-Times [Roger Ebert]
This film is so good it is devastating.
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Empire [UK]
4
Handsomely done and beautifully acted, just slightly wanting in a screenplay that leaves questions unanswered about what’s behind these unhappy people. And it’s ultra-depressing...
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Hollywood Reporter
In "Virginia Woolf," George and Martha are locked into a symbiotic, disturbingly needy relationship that absolutely feed off their acidic battles. But for Revolutionary Road's Frank and April Wheeler, you wonder: Why don't they just get a divorce?
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Los Angeles Times
Encouraged by Mendes' artful direction, his gift for eliciting naturalness, the core of this film finally cries out to us today, makes us see that the notion of characters struggling with life, with the despair of betraying their best selves because of what society will or won't allow, is as gripping and relevant now as it ever was. Or ever will be.
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New York Times
The kind of great novel that Hollywood tends to botch, because much of it takes place inside the heads of its characters, and because the Wheelers aren't especially likeable and because pessimism without obvious redemption is a tough sell.
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NZ Herald [Francesca Rudkin]
4
Winslet and DiCaprio return, proving they deserve to be remembered for more than Titanic.
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Rolling Stone [USA]
DiCaprio is in peak form, bringing layers of buried emotion to a defeated man. And the glorious Winslet defines what makes an actress great, blazing commitment to a character and the range to make every nuance felt.
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TV3 [Kate Rodger]
This is not a happy home and this is certainly not a happy movie – probably not the best choice for a first date... But for many it will resonate far beyond the cinema and you will not see better performances from these two lead actors.
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Variety [USA]
A near-perfect case study of the ways in which film is incapable of capturing certain crucial literary qualities, in this case the very things that elevate the book from being a merely insightful study of a deteriorating marriage into a remarkable one.
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