I am m not sure if I want to recommend Revolutionary Road even though, it is a very well-made picture directed by the creator of American Beauty and shot by Roger Deakins. The film reminds American Beauty with almost identical shots, POVs, even with the way the music creates tension, and most of all with the similarities in the subject matter. You can view the film as Sam Mendes's return to explore the territory and to perform dissection of the phenomena called American Suburbia once again and to prove that there never was peace and idyll in the quiet suburban paradise, nor in the end of the 90s, neither in the beginning of the 50s, during the age of hopes and innocence. Or, maybe, we should not try to look too closely, and the movie is not about the epoch, but one unhappy family of a man whose job is uninspiring (but pays the bills) and a frustrated, disappointed, unstable woman.
Acting is superb and confirms that DiCaprio and Winslet are among the best if not the best actors of their generation. But with all said, Revolutionary Road - one of the most difficult to watch films I've seen in a long time. The story of a young family from American suburbia who had lived their American dream but at some instant became exhausted with the monotony of their exemplary life, made me annoyed and even angry with them. What is wrong with those people, what makes them so unbearably unhappy, and why should I suffer for two hours, listening to hysterical cries and observing a storm in a glass of water? Why do they hate their lives so much? Am I to believe that never was a story of more woe than of the husband who has to go to work to support his family while his wife stays home taking care of their nice house and the children? She is restless, she feels trapped, she wants to change their lives, to make a clean cut, to go and start all over in Paris. Well, I have a surprise for her: change of venue would not make anyone happy if they can't find readiness to be happy inside themselves. If they can't be grateful for what they already achieved and what they are blessed with - strength, youth, energy, two nice and healthy children.
It does not mean that I deny films about unhappy families, not at all. Mendes' debut, American Beauty - one of my favorite films from the 90s. Perhaps, because it perfectly mixed tragic and humorous, drama and dark comedy. Or, perhaps, because in American Beauty, we had a chance to get acquainted with several characters, not with one but two unhappy families, to know and to understand them. Revolutionary Road - is the film about April and Frank and it concentrates on them only. This is the strength of the film as well as its weakness. Winslet and DiCaprio inhabited their characters, two little-interesting, selfish, ordinary people and played them so well that observing them for two hours has turned into difficult task. Their misery which they brought upon themselves is suffocating. Not just for them but for the viewers, also.
Acting is superb and confirms that DiCaprio and Winslet are among the best if not the best actors of their generation. But with all said, Revolutionary Road - one of the most difficult to watch films I've seen in a long time. The story of a young family from American suburbia who had lived their American dream but at some instant became exhausted with the monotony of their exemplary life, made me annoyed and even angry with them. What is wrong with those people, what makes them so unbearably unhappy, and why should I suffer for two hours, listening to hysterical cries and observing a storm in a glass of water? Why do they hate their lives so much? Am I to believe that never was a story of more woe than of the husband who has to go to work to support his family while his wife stays home taking care of their nice house and the children? She is restless, she feels trapped, she wants to change their lives, to make a clean cut, to go and start all over in Paris. Well, I have a surprise for her: change of venue would not make anyone happy if they can't find readiness to be happy inside themselves. If they can't be grateful for what they already achieved and what they are blessed with - strength, youth, energy, two nice and healthy children.
It does not mean that I deny films about unhappy families, not at all. Mendes' debut, American Beauty - one of my favorite films from the 90s. Perhaps, because it perfectly mixed tragic and humorous, drama and dark comedy. Or, perhaps, because in American Beauty, we had a chance to get acquainted with several characters, not with one but two unhappy families, to know and to understand them. Revolutionary Road - is the film about April and Frank and it concentrates on them only. This is the strength of the film as well as its weakness. Winslet and DiCaprio inhabited their characters, two little-interesting, selfish, ordinary people and played them so well that observing them for two hours has turned into difficult task. Their misery which they brought upon themselves is suffocating. Not just for them but for the viewers, also.