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Revolutionary Road (2008)

Director: Sam Mendes

Time Out rating

Average user rating

28 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Kate! Leo! Sam Mendes! And a Great American Novel! The stars are aligned! All known film industry computations dictate that if you combine those two from ‘Titanic’ with the British director of ‘American Beauty’ and such heavyweight literary material as Richard Yates’s 1961 novel about the breakdown of suburban dreams in 1950s Connecticut, then everyone involved should be drowning in gold statuettes come Oscar time. But, no, last week this film received not a single major nomination from the Academy, although Michael Shannon rightly received a Best Supporting Actor nod for a brilliant, brief performance that puts his co-stars in the shade.

Shannon plays a wise fool, an unhinged chorus, who speaks out loud the unsayable truths that we come to share about youthful married couple Frank (Leo DiCaprio) and April (Kate Winslet), whose marriage we observe veering from hope to tragedy. From the very beginning of the film, Mendes introduces a tussle between happiness and disappointment, leaping quickly from a jazzy, Manhattan-set scene in which the pair lock eyes on each other at a party to a few years later and a marital argument after a poor performance by April, a trained actress, in a local amateur production. Most of the film spins on this struggle between change and stasis as Frank and April struggle to be the free spirits – too ‘special’ for the suburbs – they believe themselves to be. Mendes is good at identifying small, significant moments, such as the look on Frank and April’s neighbour’s face when they announce their move to Paris: it’s as if they’ve sucked all meaning out of their friend’s small world.

This is a good, thoughtful film, directed with some subtle touches by Mendes (an unpredictable director), acted with intelligence by its leads and photographed by Roger Deakins mostly to avoid suburban clichés. But overall it fails – just – to get to the heart of its main, female character’s tragedy so that its climactic scenes feel hysterical rather than the culmination of all that’s come before. Thomas Newman’s forceful, repetitive score doesn’t help either; its refrain becomes more annoying the more you hear it. Yes, we know this is sad stuff. We don’t need constant reminders.

Winslet gives a good performance as a wife and mother desperately trying to swim against an ever-rising tide, but both she and DiCaprio are rigid at times. There’s one scene in which her character walks across her kitchen to kiss her husband like she’s striding across a West End stage. Yet this niggling sense of theatricality has its upside too, adding to the idea that performance is at the root of this couple’s lives.

This is a horror film about living on the edges of self-perception. It’s about people who are self-aware enough to have ideals and ambitions but at the same time not strong or daring enough to act on them. They have failings, but mostly – and this is something Mendes and his cast communicate very well – it’s their environment and society’s values that dictate their fate.

This is a sobering, well-observed film that doesn’t fully hit the mark but sets up enough pleasing ideas to chew on regarding ambition, marriage and ideals of how to live one’s life, individually and as a couple.

Author: Dave Calhoun 2009-01-27 11:06:13

Time Out London Issue 2006, 29 Jan - 4 Feb. 2009

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User reviews of this film

marie said...

Posted on Nov 07 2009 16:58 This is the review I have just written that's not here:
STRANGLED BY THE STAGE
Why now? Why did Sam Mendes decide to make this 50s-set film now? Does he see a parallel in the 50s suburban dream and the current get-rich-quick society? The story is a tragedy. Is there foreboding? Does our future look like this?
I think I'm right in saying that Sam Mendes and Kate Winslet have been doing a lot of theatre work in England prior to making this film together. It shows! (As it showed with Winslet as Sophie Scholl). Winslet's acting and Mendes' direction in this film are so measured, hers so enunciated. Even the actor who won an Oscar for playing The Fool was stagey, but perhaps, script-wise, that was unavoidable. DiCaprio struggles valiantly to give the film some spontaneity despite the steam roller that was coming at him, the onslaught of stage-inspired acting and direction from husband and wife team. How this strangled any chemistry between the pair...
Considering the briliant sponaneity of American Beauty, I did wonder if for Winslet and Mendes to work as a team was a good idea. I did wonder if Kate had told Sam that this role was hers and hers alone...
I never believed for one moment that she was part of the scene they hung out with. And wouldn't they have got a sock in the jaw for their attitude of smug superiority? That's not the America I know, then or now..
Kathy Bates and the other supporting cast were also able to bring the breath of spontaneity to their performances.
The settings and props were perfect and the camera that explored them excellent, the editing inspired.
The script is strong. I know this because I was a young thing in the 50s and this kind of tragic situation - girl gets pregnant, man and girl are saddled with each other for life - was all too closely familiar with me. How I felt for Mrs April Wheeler - that 'I am TRAPPED' feeling, TRAPPED by an impending unwanted baby and the life style one is trapped within because of it. This is the film's redemption.
What a pity it didn't come off!.

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marie said...

Posted on Nov 07 2009 16:52 I have jut written a review and it's not here. Why not? Otherwise - what a waste of time (out)!

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Justin Berkovi said...

Posted on Aug 06 2009 23:30 Terribly dreary overproduced pap from the very boring Mendes. Winslet confirms herself as just plain rubbish and Di Caprio is wasted in this nonsense.
A very weak film with no soul, nothing to get your teeth into and it just seems painfully too try hard.
Rubbish.

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dr nadeem said...

Posted on May 31 2009 16:40 amazing film.with brilliant acting by Winslet and Leo..showed the darker side of human relations when they are dissatisfied..Kate acting was piece of the cake ..i personally believe Kate and leo should now unite again to have a movie with happy ending.some mills and boons stuff with iota of intellect in it..I want to forget..I want to forget the tragic falls of Rose and then that of April...i am keeping my fingers crossed.

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Jamie baby said...

Posted on Apr 18 2009 22:08 I really can't see why people think this film is somehow saved by the acting, for me it was partially ruined by it I say partially because the screenplay and directing were as bad so it really was a team effort.

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Sara said...

Posted on Mar 06 2009 15:00 I really liked this movie! Strong and disturbing with great performances throughout, but especially loved Michael Shannon!

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Midge said...

Posted on Mar 04 2009 17:49 Enjoyed the film..a bit sad though..good acting by Cathy Bates and her son Michael Shannon and of course Kate Winslet . Thought provoking, interesting and it captured the time period.

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Linds said...

Posted on Feb 25 2009 14:17 I loved this film. It was moving and extremely thought provoking. It showed life on many different levels and one wonders do you please yourself in life or do you please others and make yourself miserable?

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Madison said...

Posted on Feb 21 2009 15:47 Bleak, but not in any way thats moving - just plain dreary. A typical Sam Mendes film then. Leo manages to create some empathy for his character, but Kate's so unbelievable. She becomes more irritating in each film she appears in. ALso I really wish films could have some sort of pre-warning if they contain images of abortion..not everyone has the stomach for it. At least 3 people walked out after this scene.

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usman khawaja said...

Posted on Feb 20 2009 21:11 a very vulgar display of emotions and even more pshotic characters then in serial kiler genres -was anyone positive in this tale of a suburban marriage falling apart -the whole cast is hysterical and pathetic while obsessed with being method perfect and shannon was the worst as the man who speaks his mind -
the only true thing about this book is yates never did have a mind so the movie reflects the ideas of a bankrupt author very well-
winslett is bent on making a martyr of herself while leo enjoys his sado masochist husband role so much he almost made me feel happy for him ,
that love even enters the conversations between the two ego maniac husband wife couple is a hilarious accident .
the suburbia is portrayed as hell and still people live there and this is a presumed satire on the so-called normal couples played by bates and hahn who seem to be content living on the street named revolutionary road -even the name is a disgrace as it is so clearly trying to make an overt statement ,
but the whole movie is just as loud and i do not think subtlety or sensitivity ever was an aim in this saga of sex and greed in suburbia .
this movie could easily be called the summer of their discontent or how i never saw paris as that seems to be the life ambition of a suburban white american female who plays a bad theatre actress in the movie but is rather good in real life as winslett.
it was interesting in sporadic moments where they tried to show the disillusionment of idealistic youth but the execution is so theatrical that you cease to care for their misery and it makes you squirm with misery with pointless adultery ,extra marital affairs and unwanted pregnancy as if that is something new .
everything that has been discussed better in a look back in anger and whos afraid of virginia woolf is repeated here to the height of melodrama without any shred of intelligence .
i liked some scenes where winslett and leo were affective but overall it failed like their flailing marriage itself .
a cliched take on the supposedly miserable life of white american suburbia slightly redeemed by the acting and the detached unsentimentality of sam mendes -
the score was really a horror as it made the drama into a theatrical nightmare and all that dancing in a bingo site was hilariously funny with a jazzy score .
watch it only if you like leo and kate and are die hard fans of the 2 rather attractive stars who try to look attractive even in their total pathetic misery in this morose and pointless marital epic .

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MikeO said...

Posted on Feb 20 2009 00:28 If this film was a piece of music it would be a 45rpm record called cliche being played at 33rpm. Painfully slow and unnecessary.

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Sam said...

Posted on Feb 18 2009 14:30 Winslet and Di Caprio get their teeth into some meaty drama roles, and they undoubtedly give their characters real depth and truely believable. However, no matter how good a performance is, a film this completely and utterly depressing. I love drama films but there has to be something vaguely humane to latch on to, and in this film, no matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't find any. Michael Shannon is indeed awful too. A real shame.

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Callie said...

Posted on Feb 16 2009 19:16 Brilliant actors, and a very interesting film. Its very unpredictable and keeps you locked in at all times. I'd recommend it for people who don't mind films without a lot of commedy and for people who enjoy real life situations.

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Monica said...

Posted on Feb 15 2009 10:27 I couldn't really get into it.. didn't manage to build an interest in the movie.. However my partner absolutely loved it!

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Stevhors said...

Posted on Feb 14 2009 20:22 A strong storyline with a sympathetic treatment of the male character's frustrations and feelings as his marriage stumbles along from one meaningless milestone to the next, very well interpreted by Leonardo di Caprio, and adequately by Kate Winslett in an occasionally stagey first hour. The whole thing comes alive with the introduction of a character suffering from unspecified mental problems, brilliantly played by Michael Shannon, and from then on, the film gathers pace and commitment, leading to a beautifully understated climax. Good film, not quite up to American beauty.

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