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Like a “Requiem for a Dream” for marital breakdowns, “Revolutionary Road” is relentlessly downward, inexorable and bleak. It’s an antidote, if a cure is actually needed, for all those romances in which a glance exchanged across a crowded room leads to wishful thinking and everlasting post-credit happiness. The film, in fact, more or less begins with the chance encounter between Frank (DiCaprio) and April (Winslet) at a party, but wastes no time moving the narrative to where it yields the most punch; two children and years later in a marriage systematically poisoned by the American Dream, embodied in that quaint land known as suburbia.
It’s tempting to drag Sartre and existentialism into a discussion of the film, if only because “Revolutionary Road” offers a textbook example of living in bad faith, the inauthenticity that comes with refusing to acknowledge our condemnation to be free. But the illusion that is the lack of choice is at the heart of Frank and April’s tragedy. She longs to be free of the suburban life, its small conformities, its familial obligations, to cast off instead for the high-life of adventure. He does, too, to some extent, but he’s hampered by not knowing what he wants to be when he grows up. The cage is a pretty one and very much like a set of nested dolls. April, the suburban housewife, is trapped by both her own choices and her dependency on the breadwinner. Frank, who at first buys into visions of freedom, is presented with the direct temptation of that comfortable ‘50s vision of a happy work and home life. He hates his job, which follows in his father’s footstep, as a marketing-type for an IBM-like business machines company. But when a moment of flippancy translates into the possibility of a promotion and more money – the very anchors of his suburban life – the trap springs shut.
Our Capacity for Hurting Others
All throughout, Frank and April Wheeler make an effort to reconcile just as their attempts to communicate become mired in self-deception, culminating in a logical ending that, for all its inevitability, is honest, tragic and heartrending. It’s a little convenient that it falls to the institutionalized son of the Wheelers’ friendly neighbourhood real estate agent to pierce through the Wheelers’ fog, but Michael Shannon plays the part of discomforting truth- teller so well that the Wheelers’ stripped pretensions make for raw, brutal drama.
“Revolutionary Road” never treads into “War of the Roses” territory – this is not a film of overt warfare – but it does touch on the seemingly endless capacity of people to hurt each other in subtle, complex ways. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet initially contend with mouthy dialogue, but ultimately hit strong, simmering notes when screenwriter Justin Haythes, who adapted the novel by Richard Yates, hits his stride. DiCaprio and Winslet, whose skills have grown in leaps and bounds over the years, offer a searing portrait, and far cry from their idealized romantic roles in “Titanic,” of a couple poisoned by an environmentally-induced madness and their own compromised choices. Sam Mendes wisely stays out their way, offering them a handsomely filmed ‘50s reconstruction with striking images – the sea of men in suits taking the train, for example, is open to symbolism – and a quiet bubbling of discontent beneath the surface. In “Blue Velvet,” David Lynch peeled backed the surface of idealized suburbia to expose the unseemly capacity for evil that lurks beneath. With “Revolutionary Road,” Mendes focuses insightfully on the insidious ways our cultural visions of the ideal can lead us away from ourselves.
*Entertainment Value:* ** (out of two)
*Technical Quality: *** (out of two)
Revolutionary Road. Directed by Sam Mendes. Screenplay by Justin Haythe, based on the novel by Richard Yates. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates and Michael Shannon. 119 minutes. Rated R (for language and some sexual content/ nudity).
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