Review - Revolutionary Road

Studio/Production Company: Paramount Vantage
Director: Sam Mendes
Written by: Justin Haythe (based on the novel by Richard Yates)
Rating: R for language and some sexual content/nudity
Release Date: December 26, 2008 (Theatrical)
Genre: Drama
Strong Points: The entire cast gives spot-on performances, highlighted by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet; Mendes' direction is powerful and poignant;
Weak Points:
Technical Score: A-
Artistic Score: A
Final Score (not an average): A-
Moral Warnings: The film covers a failing marriage; a man has an affair, though this is briefly focused on; abortion is a significant part of the plot; 5 or 6 F-words and lots of minor curse words, such as “hell” and “damn;” a woman’s breasts are shown briefly; two sex scenes, though there is no nudity.

Frank and April Wheeler (Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet) live with their two young children on the corner house of Revolutionary Road. Frank has a respectable job at Knox Business Machines, and though it’s not where he saw himself fifteen years ago, it pays well. April stays at home and watches over the children, cleans the house, cooks the meals, and performs other tasks associated with a housewife.

On the outside, the Wheeler family seems content and happy with the life they’ve chosen to lead. But on the inside, Frank and April are in turmoil. Whether they want to admit it or not, their marriage is falling apart, and we know this from the first scenes of the film. This story takes place in 1955. But what adds power, and tragedy, to Revolutionary Road is the fact that the problems brewing within the Wheeler’s marriage are problems still in the American culture today, in 2009. The old cars, slicked hair, and corded telephones serve as a mirror through which to see the astonishing lack of change between then and now.

Through flashbacks, we see the Wheelers as they once were - young, passionate, and both equally convinced that they will not buy into the American Dream that those around them have so easily fallen for. Frank speaks of Paris and the time he spent there, vowing to return. He refuses to sit behind a desk for the rest of his life like his father did. He will live life and enjoy it. April has the ambition to become an actress. It is her dream, and she shares this dream with Frank. During these moments, they seem alive, vibrant and, more importantly, different.

But these flashbacks are appropriately brief. Director Sam Mendes brings us back to the distant sense of despair and conformity that is so evident in the communication between this couple. Despite his vows, Frank does work at Knox Business Machines, and in the same position that his father did no less. April never reaches a main stage. She has a role in a community play, and Frank listens while those around him whisper how poor her performance was.

Soon, April realizes what we’ve known all along - that their life is fruitless and empty. So she presents a plan to her husband that comes across as somewhat crazy, even to us. She wants to move the family to Paris. Frank is reluctant to this idea at first, but he gives in quickly, for he knows what will become of their lives and their marriage if they continue with the living of their American Dream.

For a while, we get to see the Wheelers once more as they were, but in the present instead of through flashbacks. They experience freedom again. In those moments of the film, Mendes shows us the rapturous joy that the Wheelers feel when they let go of the burden that the culture has inflicted on them - which makes the spiral downwards and backwards all the more painful to watch.

And it is painful to watch, both before and after they achieve their sense of freedom. Mendes doesn’t treat the subject lightly. The arguments between Frank and April are intense. It’s difficult to appreciate the powerful performances when Winslet and DiCaprio make us feel so uncomfortable. Frank curses violently, throws things, and nearly comes to the point of physically harming his wife. April sits there, trying, and failing, to appeal calm. Anyone who had parents under the same pressure as the Wheelers can testify to the film’s realism in this aspect.

I should mention that later in the film, abortion plays a major part in the plot. There are no political intentions behind it, however. It serves as yet another reinforcement for how desperate and despairing the Wheeler’s situation is.

Through the remarkable, palpable chemistry of Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, through the poignant direction of Sam Mendes, Revolutionary Road paints a picture. It reveals with a darkened lens just how wrong the American definition of a good and happy life is. Mendes doesn’t judge the Wheelers. He makes them what they really are - victims of a flawed culture.

-Zak Mellgren zak@revolve21.com