Revolutionary Road [movies]  

Some may think that Sam Mendes tackling Richard Yates' novel, Revolutionary Road, was just a recycling of the same themes and ideas that he brought to life nearly a decade ago in American Beauty. And while both movies may share the belief that the picturesque suburban life only serves to hide and obscure the pain people feel behind the closed doors, Revolutionary Road is considerably more mature, more dense, more affecting than American Beauty aspired to be. Depending on your opinion of American Beauty (I, for the record, still do love that film), that may be a good thing or a bad thing. Where American Beauty had a sarcastic, cheeky irony about it, Revolutionary Road drips with stark seriousness, devoid of any winks or nudges. Where American Beauty wanted to play on our fantasies, Revolutionary Road wants to expose our reality, our unhappiness and self-loathing for our places in life.

The story follows Frank and April Wheeler, a young married couple who live in a comfortable suburban neighborhood on (surprise!) Revolutionary Road. April, a failed actress, and Frank, a salesman going nowhere, live an imperfect life as husband and wife, though they have all the monuments of a perfect, simple existence. The big house, the two kids, the car in the driveway, they live a life others can't understand would ever be insufficient, and yet it makes them hate each other out of the hatred they feel for themselves. The two agree to move to Paris and start over (as Frank once dreamed of doing), and through this ray of hope they discover their love for each other once again, only to see it fall apart as April gets unexpectedly pregnant and Frank receives a promotion at his job leading to more recognition and money making him rethink the plan to move away.

So just a word of caution for anyone seeing this movie. It's a hell of a downer. There is nary a laugh or respite from the horrid sadness that the story is immersed in. The cornerstones of the movie are intensely angry, uncomfortable fights between Frank and April that end in scenes of brooding darkness. Mendes refuses to pull the camera away from both characters, as we see not only the fight itself, but the after effects the fight has. And yet, there's nothing indulgent or excessive about these scenes, they serve as a reminder that these fights aren't the ramblings of two childish adults, that the blows they land cut deep, and scar badly. When held up against the mornings after, where Frank and April either make up or try their best to act like nothing's happened, it only increases the horrible silence, and serves to remind us of the utter cyclical futility that exists in these characters' lives the way they have set their quiet, mundane existences.

The mood of the movie is set against some of the most gorgeous framing I've ever seen in modern day movies. You could honestly pick a random spot in this movie, screengrab it, and put it in a frame and hang it on your wall, it's THAT beautiful. The visuals are supported by Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio's performances as the Wheelers, both intensely flawed and hurt individuals who love, even when they can't stand, each other. The complexity of their portrayals are shown both in the moments where they successfully convey emotion solely through facial expressions, or when they manage to make the full-out scream seem familiar and terrifying all at the same time. And yet, both infuse their characters with this strange resonance of love for each other, you never forget that these characters are flawed and yet you never lose sight of the fact that they love each other, hopelessly and at times, foolishly. These are two powerhouses standing toe to toe, and just destroying the scenery every time the movie calls for it.

All this being said, you'd think that I'd declare this movie to be one of the best of the year. And yet, there is something missing from it, perhaps it's just too crushingly bleak to really garner any true affection for it, but there does seem to be a charm or even a soul missing from Mendes' otherwise stunningly impressive filmmaking feat. Watching two straight hours of quiet, protracted, artful beauty loses some of its effectiveness by the end when the predictable climax occurs. And by that point, the artfulness of the movie does begin to creep towards overdoing it, at the expense of the emotion in the story. It never crosses the line, but you feel like it could if it had another twenty minutes to work with.

In the end, Revolutionary Road is a movie that's worth your time and attention, as nearly everything about it is amazing. But be prepared, it will not put a bounce in your step. If anything, it may make you realize that you don't have an answer for the sudden question staring you in the face: how do you escape your life when you don't know what you're escaping from? Revolutionary Road seems to say that without the answer to that question, you may end up destroying everything that was worth sticking around for.