Revolutionary Road – Review
America of the 1950s, just saying it conjures up images of a time when men wore neat suits and worked in nice office jobs and women wore nice dresses and aprons while they did their cooking and cleaning. Sam Mendes’ Revolutionary Road explores this world through the eyes of a young couple, April and Frank Wheeler (Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio), who dare to feel they are not destined for the simple mundane lives of their neighbors.
In Revolutionary Road, based on a novel by Richard Yates, April is dissatisfied with her life as a suburban housewife and Frank works at the same marketing company that his father spent his whole life working for. April strives to find a way to break out of this mold and tries to persuade Frank that they should move together to Paris where she can support him and he can realize his dreams. Throughout the movie we see the struggle against mass conformity and the lack of dreaming which was widespread in that era.
Kate Winslet is brilliant in this film. She is such a stunning actress, who can transform herself to suit any role. I think she brought a tenderness to the desperation of April. Leonardo DiCaprio, as well, is a highly gifted actor and shows us the heart of a man lost in the midst of the 50s, desiring more from life, but not knowing how or where to find it.
Brilliant acting, however, could not save the film from its flop on the big screen. Revolutionary Road is a fantastic and moving novel, however much of what makes it great are the thoughts and struggles which rage in the characters’ minds. Sam Mendes captured the inner struggles of his characters masterfully in American Beauty, however in Revolutionary Road his approach seemed clinical and dispassionate.
Though the story behind Revolutionary Road is compelling and the acting impressive, the feelings and tragedy seems somehow lost in translation from novel to big screen.
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