Genre: Drama
Director: Sam Mendes
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates, Michael Shannon, David Harbour
Running Time: 119 minutes (plus trailers)
In 1999, director Sam Mendes broke onto the directorial scene with the critically acclaimed American Beauty. The Best Picture winning film featured brilliant performances from both its lead actors and utilized a combination of drama and dark comedy to expose the sinister side of suburban life. Now, ten years later, Mendes returns to the location that launched his career with Revolutionary Road, based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Richard Yates. Set in 1950’s Connecticut, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet play Frank and April Wheeler, a young couple who have recently moved to the suburbs. April, a failed actress soon becomes dissatisfied with her buttoned down life and dreams of seeing Paris, while Frank works in a boring job in order to provide for his family, while at the same time carrying on an affair with his secretary. Unable to stand the mediocrity any longer, the Wheelers decide to escape their lives and move to Europe, but ultimately they find themselves fighting a losing battle to break free from society’s rules.
There are three big comparisons one can make with Revolutionary Road. The first, as was mentioned above is to American Beauty. That film was certainly a superior, which one can attribute to the morbidly funny script by Alan Ball, who would later go onto create the critically acclaimed television drama Six Feet Under. While Revolutionary Road explores many of the same themes, it delivers none of the sly humour or voyeuristic thrills that made American Beauty so captivating. The second comparison is to Titanic, which was of course the last film in which DiCaprio and Winslet played lovers. But while in Titanic the relationship was new and filled with promise, this film follows a couple who have been together long enough for the initial excitement of young love to fade, and who now find themselves feeling trapped and desperate. People have correctly pointed out that the relationship between Frank and April might very well be where Jack and Rose would have ended up if (spoiler alert) the titanic hadn’t sunk.
The third comparison is to most readers probably the least obvious, but I believe it is the one that will best highlight this films flaws. The Golden Globe winning television program Mad Men shares enormous similarities with Revolutionary Road. Set in the early 60’s in New York, the series is based in an advertising firm, and follows numerous characters, both male and female as they attempt to navigate the conservative, misogynist world in which they live. The characters of Don and Betty Draper face many of the same employment, marital and emotional problems that Frank and Alice do, but they’re character arcs unfold over a full season of television, whereas Frank and Alice only have two hours. Because of this, the characters in the film are not nearly as complex, and in some cases are plain one-dimensional. When we first meet the Wheelers, their relationship is already clearly breaking down, and although the film uses flashbacks in an attempt to show how the relationship developed, all the audience is ever really shown are two people, one of whom is unkind and the other who is borderline mentally unstable. The supporting characters suffer from the same problem. Kathy Bates plays an older neighbour, who fills the very standard mould of the gossipy neighbour, and Michael Shannon plays her mental patient son, a character who represents the epitome of lazy screenwriting. His tirades against society sums up what the filmmakers want the audience to feel, but it is so unsubtle that it feels like he is slapping you in the face, and although Shannon does a good job acting, there is only so much you can do with a character that feels as though he’s made out of cardboard.
There is some good here, but it simply does not out way the bad. The costumes and production design is great, and they lend themselves to some great pieces of cinematography, such as when Frank gets of the train and is instantly lost in a sea of business suits. Obviously, they’re has been a lot hype about the performances, particularly Winslets, and it is not unreasonable to assume that she will take home the Oscar. The raw emotion that we see on display in this film is can be very moving at times, but it is also a tad repetitive. I said in my summation of the trailer that the Wheelers seem to spend the entire film arguing, and I wasn’t that far off. And while both lead actors should be commended for what are really quite brave performances, the arguments they have feel very scripted. It is never a good sign when a film resorts to the following cliché: while in a rage someone either sweeps a bunch of stuff off of a desk or punches an inanimate object. I’m sorry, but I don’t think that ever really happens unless you’re drunk. I guess this isn’t a major problem…it just bugs me. The ending of this film grows more infuriating in my mind as time goes on, predominately because their were about ten better endings before it. There is one great scene in the last ten minutes where the two of them sit down and cordially eat breakfast. It is here, I believe that the film should have ended, but instead it keeps going. From then on, every scene would have made a better conclusion to the scene the follows it, and by the time we actually reach the end, it is so breathtakingly unnecessary and unsubtle that you want to sprint out of the cinema before they try to add yet another ending.
Perhaps the reason that this film didn’t capture my imagine is because I plain don’t agree with the premise. The suburbs just aren’t that bad. They can be stifling, and boring, and you may dream of escape, but this film presents the absolute worse case scenario. In American Beauty (sorry to keep returning to this comparison) the message seems to be that it is the people behind the white picket fences that are wacky and/or repressed, but the contention of Revolutionary Roads is that the suburbs will plain out destroy your soul, and anyone who likes living there is either repressed or crazy. And that simply isn’t true. After all, I grew up in the suburbs and I am perfectly well adjusted.
Right?
Revolutionary Road is in cinemas now. But wouldn’t you rather rent American Beauty?
