Revolutionary Road Reviews

That 'Revolutionary Road' was directed by Sam Mendes (who directed the brilliant 'American Beauty' nine years earlier) and that it reunited two immensely talented actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet after 1997's 'Titanic' were reasons enough to see it.

'Revolutionary Road' may not be "revolutionary" and it is not perhaps a film that will be re-watched over and over by me. This said, there is so much to appreciate, there is no denying that it's incredibly well made and superbly acted. And to me and many others (though it is an understandably polarising film, the dark and unpleasant subject matter is not for everybody) it is a powerful and moving film, and one of the most realistic and truthful depictions of a struggling marriage on film.

Visually, 'Revolutionary Road' is wonderfully shot, bleak but also sumptuous, while the scenery and 50s production values are evocatively and handsomely rendered. Thomas Newman's music score is hauntingly hypnotic, achingly melancholic and at times ominous.

While at times stagy, the dialogue is insightful, making one really think about what it's saying (it has much to say and knows how to say it without preaching) and for many will wrench the gut and induce floods of tears. There is a little levity provided by Kathy Bates, that could have been ill-fitting but is pitched well. The story is deliberate, but the atmosphere is brilliantly evoked and there are many parts that have huge power and are emotionally devastating, especially in the latter parts.

Sam Mendes keeps things at an assured pace, keeps the atmosphere alive and doesn't undermine the chemistry between DiCaprio and Winslet in any way. DiCaprio and Winslet embody their roles, which are intentionally not the most likable, are very complex and very much compellingly real, and their chemistry is both tense and affecting. Winslet has the more complex one of the two and her performance is a heart-wrenching emotional roller-coaster, while DiCaprio gives an explosive turn especially in the fever pitch latter parts.

Michael Shannon proves himself to be a scene stealer as the brutally honest crazy nut, and Kathy Bates brings well-timed levity.

Overall, a powerful and moving film that is highly appreciated in many ways. 9/10 Bethany Cox

I wanted so much more from this movie. I know it's a downer, but I really wanted it to be not a "rip out your heart and spit on it" kind of downer. I hate suburbia so very much and thought it was going to help me justify that hatred.

Many years after Sam Mendes knocks us all out with the amazing American beauty, he tried again to bring us another story about a simple suburban family, only this time, he failed to bring anything interesting.

A story about a husband (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and his wife (played by Kate Winslet) as they live in a suburban neighborhood, with a boring life and few friends, Frank have a boring job, and the wife suggest a change in life, which is traveling to Paris and leaving this life behind them, but Frank suggest postponing that change because his boss just offered him a new chance and his job might get better now, so you get to see them going back to their boring life as their dreams are destroyed and their ambitions lowered by their friends.

The story was so void and boring, the whole atmosphere didn't work, a couples living in the 50's and having some problems failed to make me feel anything, which is very sad because Leo brings one of his best performances ever, along side with an equally incredible performance by Kate, but because the story was so boring, i kept asking myself "should i feel something here", which is a question i should never have to ask myself if the story was engaging or somewhat interesting.

It's even sadder for me because Leonardo DiCaprio is my favorite actor, he makes every movie watchable, and he puts so much into any character he play, so i think it takes special talent from Sam Mendes to make a movie with both Leo and Kate not interesting, specially when those two are bringing over the top performances.

And not just the story wasn't working, everything other than the performances was wrong, the costumes, the screen play, the house, the neighborhood, the 50's theme, the production design, the entire look of the movie was void, they even managed to make all the actors look charmless and that's the greatest insult of all.

Kate and Leo are just amazing together

It's hard to find movies that are extremely successful thanks in large part to the script. Screenplays that are merely adequate are often elevated to above average quality when turned into film thanks to solid direction or to a stellar performance or to a number of other things. So, it's rare to come across written material that is as expertly constructed and as piercingly observant as Justin Haythe's adaptation of the novel Revolutionary Road. Couple that with the keen direction of Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jarhead - not a single unimpressive title to his credit), and you've got a supremely good cinematic exploration of the prisons that are suburbia and married life.

April and Frank Wheeler (Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio) are regarded as an exemplary couple by the other people who live in their neighborhood, but both April and Frank are dissatisfied in their own respective ways with the conventional lifestyle they've succumbed to. As the more idealistic of the two, April couldn't be sicker of the housewife role, and she proposes to her husband that they move with their children to Paris, where she can get a job as a secretary while Frank can try to find himself and figure out what he really wants to do with his life, seeing as he despises his current job. A wide-eyed April asks Frank, "What's stopping us?" The more pragmatic Frank can think of "a number of reasons" stopping them, but ultimately agrees with the plan to move to Paris, because he craves the freedom as much as April does; as Frank states earlier in the film, when he was younger the last thing he wanted was "to end up like [his] father," and now he works at the same place of employment that his father did. This is one of the many great things about Revolutionary Road: rather than following the familiar plot line of having the wife be the only one trapped and unhappy, with the husband being the tough, traditional spouse, the story instead has BOTH characters exude unhappiness and struggle to break free, each for particular reasons. April's desperation is every bit as palpable as Frank's angst to get a release from monotony.

The scene in which April and Frank reveal their moving plans to friends/neighbors Milly and Shep Campbell (Kathryn Hahn and David Harbour) is flawlessly executed, from the awkward way in which the Wheelers make the announcement, to the Campbells' initial misunderstanding and subsequent pretense of being happy for them, and to the Wheelers' apprehensive stab at explaining their decision. This is followed by a scene, once April and Frank are gone, in which the Campbells are alone, and Shep breaks the silence by commenting that the Wheelers' plan "sounds immature," to which Milly responds to by breaking down crying, but from joy, saying she's "extremely relieved." Though the lead characters aren't even present during this scene, the scene itself is perfect in encapsulating what Revolutionary Road wants to get across: Milly probably feels just as incarcerated in suburban hell as April and Frank do, and when she heard that the two of them were making a move to escape from said life, she got worried, perhaps thinking that maybe she could do it as well, deeply scared of the prospect of making a decision that would greatly alter the comfortable course of her life. So, upon hearing her husband dismiss the Wheelers' plan as immature, she can go back to the way things were, and the peace she gets from knowing she can remain in eternal hell is so intense it makes her cry - how ironic.

Unfortunately for the Wheelers, ostensible "obstacles" get in the way of Paris: April becomes pregnant and Frank gets an unexpected promotion at the job he hates. What's most interesting is the way in which each of them hides the obstacle from the other until it's literally impossible to continue doing so. After getting the promotion, Frank pretends to still be studying the French dictionary, and he exhibits an inability to say things directly to his wife by one day at the beach casually telling Shep (while April listens) about the promotion, rather than just announcing it face-to-face to April while they were alone at home. This sets April off, thus propelling the decline of the couple's relationship, and it all gets even worse when April has no choice but to reveal the delicate condition she's in.

Throughout Revolutionary Road, two crucial visits are made to the Wheelers' home by the family composed of the realtor who got them the house, Helen (Kathy Bates), her husband Howard (Richard Easton) and their son John (Michael Shannon), whom Helen claims has mental problems, even though he turns out to be the one character who is most aware of what is happening, or at least the only one with the balls to say things the way they are. There's a magnificently set-up scene in which the dialogue features Helen commenting on how beautiful the day is, while at the same time John makes blatant, incisive remarks about April and Frank's relationship. One of the film's greatest insights comes when John states (in reference to settling into standard suburban/married life) that "plenty of people see the emptiness, but it takes real guts to see the hopelessness" - people are generally capable of sensing that they're unhappy, but they often don't realize that it isn't going to get any better unless they do something to change it. John is the voice of this film, and his apparent omniscience comes across even moreso during the second visit to the Wheelers' home when the couple reveals they won't be able to go to Paris because of financial reasons. Dismissed as insane, the deeply observant John wisely points out that money is always a good reason not to do something, but it's rarely the real reason, and he scans the looks on the faces of April and Frank and immediately deduces the real reasons why the Wheelers aren't leaving, and he exposes them, poundingly. Helen repeatedly apologizes for her son's insanity. Meanwhile, husband and father Howard remains curiously quiet throughout these scenes, and it's not until the final, brilliant shot of Revolutionary Road that we discover the reason for his reticence.

I've quoted a lot, and I wish I could quote more, seeing as this film is one of 2008's most fiercely observant cinematic achievements, but you're better off receiving said insight by actually watching it. Another aspect that is handled masterfully is the score - I don't often look at the credits for this, but Thomas Newman's name must be mentioned, for he has created a score that never fails to perfectly match each scene's emotional tone, and some moments would've easily felt somewhat flat if it hadn't been handled the way it was.

If there's a quibble to be had with Revolutionary Road, it's one I would've never expected I'd write in this review, and I'm very sorry to say it, but in the early scenes, Winslet simply doesn't measure up to DiCaprio. There's an air of artificiality to her performance when she's acting excited about going to Paris, and while it's nothing extreme, it's not on par with DiCaprio's consistently great work, and it's also a shocker, because Winslet is an excellent actress (and none of said artificiality was present in her work in 2006's Little Children, another deft examination of suburbia and married life). In three days, I'll get to watch her much-praised supporting performance in The Reader, and I look forward to seeing her in top form there. To be fair, though, during the final, crucial scenes of Revolutionary Road she does get her act together, and thank God she does, because if she hadn't, the film's climax (which requires a lot from her) could've been a failure. But it's DiCaprio who doesn't once stray from perfection; here's an actor who is savagely committed to every role he plays. Watch Frank's reaction in response to the remark "I hate you!", and after watching that, I dare you to say that DiCaprio isn't great in this film. The Academy will have made a serious error in judgment if it makes the same mistake it made 11 years ago with Titanic of nominating Winslet and not DiCaprio. As an added bonus, the actor is finally able to incorporate his unfading boyish good looks to a role after not being able to do so in his recent films (his characters in Blood Diamond and The Departed were both getting into fights and whatnot all the time, and in this year's Body of Lies he was, unfortunately, required to sport a hideous beard). From amazing performances as a child in both What's Eating Gilbert Grape? and This Boy's Life, to a bunch of great roles in between, to his work now in Revolutionary Road, this is what I call an incredible performer, and one from whom I have no doubt there'll be continued great things to come. In the supporting department, Kathy Bates is wonderful as the seemingly perky Helen, whom we learn a lot about during the film's final scene, and Michael Shannon gets under your skin and stays there, as the supposedly insane John.

Promoting Revolutionary Road as "Kate & Leo's reunion" (and don't forget Kathy Bates, too!), while seemingly a good marketing strategy, isn't exactly a wise thing to do because this film is strikingly different from Titanic, a movie that was basically appealing to just about everyone, while Revolutionary Road will appeal to a far more limited set of moviegoers. It's not fair at all to compare them, but if we have to, then my opinion is that Titanic is an epic, ravishing masterpiece of mainstream entertainment, a sure classic, a perfect combination of romance, action and comedy, and #4 on my all-time top 10 list, while Revolutionary Road is a near-perfect, relentlessly raw look at the implosion of a marriage, and very likely to be on my year-end top 10 list for 2008.

This is Sam Mendes' second superior examination of suburban life after 1999's American Beauty. The only reason why Revolutionary Road falls a wee-bit short of being as great as American Beauty is that American Beauty had a wider scope in that it fully examined more characters, whereas Revolutionary Road focuses heavily on April and Frank, while the supporting characters don't quite get the full-fledged development that those in American Beauty did. However, the less expansive approach works for Revolutionary Road because the couple's collapsing relationship is indeed the center of this superb story.

Though it's set in the 1950s, Mendes' film should more than resonate with present-day audiences. Despite the fact that there are more openly liberal minds out there today than there were in the 1950s, the truth remains that people still settle for the seemingly quaint nature of suburban life, and marriage still appears to be this crippling thing that, for whatever odd reason, keeps people from doing anything groundbreaking with their lives, and instead forces them to just stay put. In fact, the makers of Revolutionary Road take advantage of the time period in which it's set to foreshadow the further decline in the years to come: when being offered his promotion, Frank is tempted by being told, "You'll be a part of something exciting: computers!" The criticism could not be more evident, as it's gotten to a point that computers have severely affected people's desire to be adventurous and separate from the monotony of relying on man-made objects, and it's also led to a desensitization as a result of people communicating through typed text, which arguably leaves little room for emotions to flow, and thus, it doesn't exactly make you feel alive. April and Frank find themselves in a situation in which they're both having a very hard time feeling alive (as Frank puts it, he no longer feels "filled with blood"), and Revolutionary Road is a powerfully amazing depiction of the crushingly ruinous results that can come from being caged in that situation.

After the first view, coming out of the cinema, I could not find a suitable phrase to somehow sum up what I saw. After watching the movie a second time, the words themselves come out.

"Revolutionary Road" - a real strong drama, not pitying one and boldly baring the realities of life.

Family Wheeler, who brought the viewer is at a certain stage of relations. They have two children, Frank makes his living, April contains a house. They're friends with the family in the neighborhood, a local realtor would drop at times to them at tea. Most ordinary married couple.

Paris. Yes, one day his wife turns to her husband: "Remember how you wanted it that way in Paris? You said that there is another life. After all, to live as you want. " And like everything was clear, he agreed, she buys tickets, neighbors puzzled as non-standard solution of friends. Next dream.

And this is where life is setting its priorities. Out pops up all the things that can not hide and tuck in a black box. As the image on the film revealed disagreements, contradictions, irreconcilability good small, the family man Frank, and the failed actress, but a very strong woman April.

Their marriage was doomed in advance. Too different, they were people, they Wheeler. And the attitude to the family they have bipolar, and the vision of the world. Clearly understand the position of Frank. April's "split" me later. Trying to fulfill the dream of her husband, she clutched at her like a rope of salvation to a better life. This desire to escape. But where and from whom, when everywhere all the same?

Half-open door into their world opens to us the lives of many families, someone will see in the films reflected, someone will just endure a storm of emotions and a flurry of thoughts, torn from the inside. And you can not make this right or wrong aside, here it is - life, without embellishment and pathos. It has been and it will be.

You can blame him, you can blame everything on it. Yes, there is simply no one guilty or innocent parties to the marriage. Coexistence condemns the participation of both parties in the relationship and the responsibility for which the answer both.

John, the same psychopath who twice visited by Wheeler, it just opened pours out the whole truth, in which they are afraid to admit to each other. The trio of actors - DiCaprio, Winslet, Shannon - a rich game that admires and not dare to contradict. Just for the sake of such an alliance is to watch a movie.

And that presented the viewer, mercilessly hits him somewhere inside. After the first viewing, I think, can hardly be really something to pour out. Therefore, "Revolutionary Road" desperately to be reviewed later. But this is a sign of a splendid drama, which knows no time frame. It looks easy, perceived rapidly. Being aware of each time more clearly and distinctly.

Frank(Dicaprio) and April (Winslet) are a married couple with two children, and they have a house, Frank works for a major company makes enough money to keep them both well set for the rest of their lives. April doesn’t like the life they lead, and she wants out. Frank tells her that they should make the move while the kids are still young. The decide to go to Paris and start over, but something gets in the way and that one thing is called Money. Continuing to live this life, means they still have all the money that Frank makes, without the happiness to go along with it. They have friends who they hang out with and they try and help John Giving’s (Michael Shannon) regain his sanity while they begin to lose their own.

To sum this film up in a few words, I know it’s early in the review to be doing this, but I feel like this is as good a spot as any. This film is real life like to the point that it could reflect any one person that could be at the theatre. Some will share the ideas of Frank and some of April. Neither is really wrong, the both love each other they just can’t seem to agree on what their life should be. Frank wants the big house, children, friends, a job, money, everyday life. April wants the thrill, something new, different, a challenge, a change, a life. They cannot seem to agree and they come face to face with explosive feelings on the matter. The arguing scenes in this film are so deep, intense, and relatable. Often time’s people can easily pick a side when arguing and disagreements are major in a film. But in this one, the problem is that you cannot pick a side. There is no clear cut right and wrong, they both have their beliefs and different people will see it from a different point of view. This film needed to be this way to avoid being sexist in any way. The men could see Franks views. The women could see Aprils. The challenging part was being able to see both. Being able to agree with the hurtful words they both slung at each other. Being able to identify with the words, feel their pain, feel it all, let it take you and let it consume you. With this film it will ruin your evening. The emotions will hit you, break and make you sad and not really want to talk to anyone, and just wallow in your own brain and weigh out your own life before you begin to criticize the life of another human being.

When talking about the leads it is so easy to write separate paragraphs and talk about each character and dissect the role. These characters were Undecided from phrase to phrase, thinking, pondering, hoping to decide the right thing. There is really no question after this one, Winselt and Dicaprio were both 100 times better than they were in Titanic and both should be winning Oscars in 2 weeks time, but unfortunately that won’t happen. Dicaprio and Winslet were astounding, were heart wrenching. They threw words at each other like they were married, they didn’t act, and they lived this film. They took over those lives and it was amazing. This was more than just two performances, it was real life, this stuff happens, it really does, and it is hard to see it on screen, you cannot predict the ending, you can see them for who they really are as characters and that is the problem that is what makes this film to sad and to heart breaking. This film will make you want to cry, yes it will.

A little side note, when I watched this film and the sad awkward moments came up and people didn’t know how to react they turned to laughter. I would like to point out I didn’t really find any one scene from this film particularly funny in any way. I didn’t really think that was a laughable film and that was a judgement made way before I even went to see it. So please people don’t turn to laughter, it’s ok to be sad and let it make you sad. It is more than just a film, it is the depiction of how real life can be, and that is sad.

As far as this story goes, it is simple, it is greatly written and it can be described as truly realistic. Some people might even go as far as to say this film is boring. It wasn’t for a moment boring, it just really isn’t a film for everyone, it really isn’t a film that everyone will enjoy, it has a rather sad ending, which I will not give away until maybe later in the review. It has a lot of heart stomping, mind racking, true to real life dialogue. This film has the best dialogue in a film that came out in 2008. It was a great film, in every sense of the word great.



Frank Wheeler: I want to feel things. Really feel them

April Wheeler: Just because you've got me safe in this little trap, you think you can bully me into feeling whatever you want me to feel!

From this point on there will be some spoilers. I feel the need to keep talking and keep writing, so I advise anyone who really wants to see this film not to read anymore.

1.Frank and Aprils relationship- Their relationship had its ups and downs, like most relationships, but why did they let it get out of hand like that. Right from the beginning it was evident they were on the wrong road, so did they let it get out of hand. To give my opinion the matter, I think it was because as much as they couldn’t live together and make it work, they wouldn’t have been able to live without the reassurance that every night the other would be there to help the other out if something went wrong.

2.Friends and Family- Frank and April had friends, but it always seemed like their friends were mocking them and that they were mocking their friends. That could have just been my young mind working this movie for more than it was, but I really did see the same reflections off of April and Frank that people still do today with their friends. We always talk about people when they arent around.

3.Cheating- Both Frank and April cheated, but when Frank was open with her and eventually told her, why didn’t she tell him. She had the chance, he wanted her to know that his cheating was something has had done. I am not trying to pick sides here, but from my vision it looked like he was trying to clear the demons and she wasn’t. It looked like he was ready to make nice and she wanted to rehash all the memories and suffering they had.

4.Even if you have read to this point and still haven’t found a spoiler that is major, then this one will be. The abortion argument- Frank was really harsh with April and he shouldn’t have been. His views on the issue weren’t wrong, but she wanted out and he couldn’t see that. He didn’t think she was right in any way and that if he had money she would be fine.

5.Franks Outcome- Franks outcome was probably the saddest thing in this entire film. He only moved to the city after April dies and he shouldn’t have. He should have stayed right where he was on Revolutionary Road because he drove her to death over that house. He pushed her until she snapped and then he just up and abandons his life because she is dead.

6.Final Scene- Helen and Howard Giving’s are the couple that introduce the Wheelers to Rev Road, and at the end they are talking about how they knew it wouldn’t work, and that there was something odd about the wheelers the whole time. I found this scene really sad, because after all that she sat there and said she could see it all the time. It is easy to see that once it happened.

7.Millie and Shep- Shep believed that April might have been pregnant with his kid, that is why he acted so badly when Millie was telling the new young couple. When he walked out and looked at the house and how the colors had changed, it signalled a new beginning on Rev Road with the same old haunting for the one man that maybe did care about their well being, or Aprils at least.

This film was brilliantly created, masterfully acted and is a great sad film.

After watching The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button in the first 3 hours of 2009, Revolutionary Road made an even more special 6 hours of 2009 by watching it straight after it. Revolutionary Road is another masterful suburban drama from Sam Mendes. This film brought together quite a few things from American Beauty like the fallouts between husband and wife, the sceneries behind it and what the plot is in general. This is an emotional drama that has a dark outlook on life. This one is darker than American Beauty because American Beauty is a beautiful story as well as depressing. Revolutionary Road is more dramatic. What I truly love about suburban dramas is that there is both beauty and drama within them.


Leonardo DiCaprio was fantastic as Frank Wheeler. Nobody has ever seen him play a character like Frank who is a man at a job he hates and is a family man. We have previously seen DiCaprio play really different characters in the past where he just lives his own life like Jack Dawson, Billy Costigan, Frank Abagnale Jr. and Danny Archer. Despite how different Frank is compared, he has that some used in DiCaprio because Frank is a rather serious character. Kate Winslet's performance was fabulous as April Wheeler. April is a troubled woman who ends up being an actress much to her dismay. To star a new fresh life, she wants to live in Paris with Frank and their son and daughter. Kate has played that mothering kind of character before like she did in her Oscar nominated performance in Little Children. Kate has truly given the best performance of her career even beating Rose in Titanic. April is mixed up and confused about what she wants. Kate has a huge chance of winning two Oscars in the same year: for Revolutionary Road (Leading Actress) and The Reader (Supporting Actress). It's a damn shame that Kate won the Oscar for The Reader instead of Revolutionary Road. Kathy Bates was good as Mrs. Helen Givings in a possible Oscar worthy performance. Michael Shannon made me laugh in this one because John Givings is such an irritating character. It was great seeing Leonardo and Kate in a film together again.


Sam Mendes' direction was fantastic but was very different compared to American Beauty even though the stories in both are quite similar. This film must have been a life changing experience for Mendes because he worked with his wife Kate Winslet, he worked with one of the most popular partnerships of all time which was in Titanic and now Revolutionary Road. Also, because Kate and Leonardo are almost like best friends in real life. I mean, what a fantastic collaboration: Mendes-DiCaprio-Winslet. There are two masterpieces involving cast (including Kathy Bates) with director and story theme and they are Titanic and American Beauty. Mendes is THE fantastic just like American Beauty was.


This is Kate Winslet's best film so far where she has to finally win an Oscar especially working with her husband. Love DiCaprio in this but love his performance in The Departed the most. Sam Mendes' second best after American Beauty and it's my third favourite film of 2008 behind The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button and The Dark Knight. Revolutionary Road is a re-born suburban drama from Mendes. Loved Mendes before but love his work even more now!!

''Hopeless emptiness. Now you've said it. Plenty of people are onto the emptiness, but it takes real guts to see the hopelessness.''

A young couple living in a Connecticut suburb during the mid-1950s struggle to come to terms with their personal problems while trying to raise their two children. Based on a novel by Richard Yates.

Leonardo DiCaprio: Frank Wheeler

It's been a long ten years since Sam Mendes' debut picture American Beauty. That's a really long time for audiences and fans of Mendes. People forget a film's essence and directors reintegrate old idealologies into a new piece of film, to the shocking dispair of us film critics. Benjamin Button did that to the humble Forest Gump, and Mendes has done it with his latest project. I'm not bold enough to make the claim that he simply re-did American Beauty as Revolutionary Road but the two are very similar. That's OK since American Beauty won several awards in various countries. It's still a worth a ticket price, but people will forget about this film in five years as American Beauty resurfaces in their minds.

The film is adapted from Richard Yates' extremely well-received novel, first published in 1961. It is an examination of American suburbia that blossomed in the '50s and the problems therein. Now, I think that such an observation would be especially meaningful when made in its own time but not as much now. Many other people, including Mendes himself, have already produced Revolutionary Road in both film and other media. This forces the movie to rely on something additional besides its tired premise. Revolutionary Road offers viewers a disturbingly lifelike representation of a failing marriage. Winslet and DiCaprio are so good that I found myself reveling in the chaos. After their characters marry and become parents, both actors are constantly uneasy and stiffened by uneasiness. Neither portrayal is subdued, but rather fiery and inflamed, bordering on hatred even. Even when they are not verbally abusing each other, both are under veils of artificial emotion. There are no feel-good elements to the picture. Revolutionary Road is as effective as any gruesome exploitative film in never allowing its audience a moment's respite. It's different from American Beauty in that specific way, the story is pessimistic while its parent is inspiring, yet in this way it is truer to life than it's predecessor ever was.

The bulk of the film was centred around their joint decision to uproot their family (and the children whom we rarely see) and move to Paris, so that DiCaprio's Frank would be able to live out his dream, of finding out his true calling. This would mean selling all their assets, crossing the steamship the other way round (which I chuckled at, and wonder if we're really going to see that at all), and having his wife support him (because the Europeans pay secretaries exorbitant salaries) while he mucks around for inspiration to life. This would also mean bidding Sayonara to his dead end job, until Murphy so decides to throw a spanner in the works with Frank gaining much needed recognition.
Kate Winslet's April seemed to be the all-sacrificing wife, until her frequent breakdowns seem to cast doubts on her sanity, having to fight like mad with her husband, only to put on a more cordial front every morning at breakfast. One can only guess that she's doing her best to keep things from breaking down, but there's only a limit to how many holes in a sinking ship you can deter. In fact, the film develops at a pace with which paint dries, and comes alive only when Frank and April trade verbal punches of tidal wave proportions, with hurting insults flying both directions with the threat of physical violence always one step behind, as if in shadow.

''I want to feel things. Really feel them.''

This Revolutionary Road is about the hypocrisy that we are all semi-aware of, yet choose to play the social charade and get a mental kick out of laughing the unrealness of it all behind closed doors, behind other people's backs. The games we play with the intention to hurt will sometimes backfire on ourselves too, and it's almost always never a good thing to be doing something to hit back at the other person, one whom you know you love. But banging it head on also means that it's time to surrender, to submit, but preferably done so in a more civil manner compared to dropping the bombshell and hoping for an expected reaction.

Perhaps in the madness of it all, it takes an ex-mental patient character John (played by Michael Shannon) to become the voice of reason in an insanely fake world that both Frank and April find themselves in. In being crazy, he's granted the excuse to cut through the nonsense and say things as he sees fit, and has some of the best lines in the movie but also being the most accurate in the reading of the characters' expressions. If you think both Frank and April have words that hurt, pay attention to the wise sayings of John.

Based on a novel by Richard Yates, Sam Mandes managed to bring out the best in the chemistry between his two leading stars. Between them, age has not been kind to Winslet, while the additional lines on DiCaprio's face makes him all the more mature, though retaining his baby-faced looks that even made it to the insults their character trades.
Just when everything starts to meander around the themes it set out to explore, and treading in dangerous ground in being too convoluted for its own good, the parting shot was quite verbose in summing everything up quite nicely, in that it pays to switch off at times, or most of the times if you will, in order to keep things as sane as possible without the opportunity of being misread that you're uncooperative, or unwilling to lend a listening ear. Very poignant, emotionally turbulent and chillingly close to reality.

'Look at us. We're just like everyone else. We've bought into the same, ridiculous delusion.''