Mini Review - 'Revolutionary Road'

If I ever become an actor I am definitely going to start an affair with my director so I am photographed as beautifully as Sam Mendes did wife Kate Winslet.

While watching this very dark and depressing film I was not overly drawn to the story or the characters aside from the basic 'I am so on Aprils side with this'.
But a strange thing happened.
I have not been able to stop thinking about the film.

True it sheds a dark and unhappy light on relationships and the pressures they come up against, but it also makes the viewer take a look at themselves and the relationships they are or have been in.

The idea of living a life you are raised to think is normal only to find it is not what you want, and you are trapped in the confines you have yourself created is something most of us can relate to.
April Wheeler (Winslet) feels trapped. She loves her children, but regrets having them so young. She loves her husband, but also blames him for allowing them both to get trapped in this life she doesn't want. She had wanted to be an actress but was not that good. Instead she uses what talent she has to feign interest in her well meaning but dull neighbours.
No one expects women to feel this way. Even today women are supposed to desire children from an early age, and then love their lives after they have them, but in all honestly, that is hardly ever the case.
Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) is in a job he doesn't like, in a place he doesn't like living and sees no way out. His wife is unhappy and constantly picks fights with him, and he in turn goads her by not allowing her time to be angry or silent.

Both actors deliver great performances, each going down to dark and cruel places to bring these two broken people to life (as much as they can). Winslet, in particular has a difficult time of making each mood shift believable. However both are let down a little by some screenplay and directorial decisions which seem to never allow them (especially DiCaprio) to completely get under their characters skin, therefore making it hard to invest in either character (this could be mainly because I related to April and not Frank - the bf was completely the opposite and said he though Winslet was the weaker link). The first few moments of the film see the couple having a screeching argument in the car, but as a viewer, you do not know these characters well enough to take it as more than an actors showcase piece. Perhaps some more time showing the deterioration would have fixed this.
There were many times at the begining where I just wished these two would just shut the f*ck up. Perhaps a more fluid screenplay would have ironed out these sometimes completely unrealistic outbursts, or at least, allowed the viewer to understand the characters more, so when they do pick each other apart there is more of a back story to draw from.
As I got to know April, however, this didn't matter so much. She may have been overly emotional and cruel but this is a wonderful portrait of a woman who, through marriage, domesticity and motherhood has lost her identity.

However, criticisms aside, 'Revolutionary Road' has stayed with me making me think about myself and why I think the way I do, how I am similar to these people, and how I need to change. It is like low cost therapy.

B+