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In the
picture
Revolutionary Road****
*ing: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates, Michael
Shannon
Directed by: Sam Mendes
Tagline: How do you break free without
breaking apart?
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Revolutionary
Road, directed by the very talented Sam Mendes (Kate Winslet's
husband), is notable for several reasons. Most prominent is
that it brings Titanic co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet
- the couple that made a million hearts swoon - back on to the
silver screen. But Revolutionary Road is not a film about two
star-crossed lovers. In a strange way, and from a 'Singleton'
perspective, it could be the story of what could have happened
had an iceberg not hijacked Jack and Rose's love story, and
they'd gotten married.
Revolutionary Road is an adaptation of the 1961 Richard Yates
novel of the same name. It sees Sam Mendes coming back to the
same topic that has made him such a huge name after the success
of his 1999 debut film, American Beauty: life in the suburbs. |
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while American Beauty was set in modern times, Revolutionary Road
takes us back to the 1950s American suburbia. Frank (Leonardo) and
April (Kate) are a married couple with two children, living in a picturesque
house on a street called Revolutionary Road. Yet unlike their peers
in the neighbourhood and at Frank's workplace, they deride their suburban
life style, somehow at a loss to understand exactly why they're living
their mundane existences out. And even as Frank hates his job at a
computer company and cheats on April with a typist, April looks for
a way out for their family: to move to Paris. Paris, the City of Lights,
which Frank has described to his adoring wife as the 'only city he's
felt alive in', seems to April the place where they can live again.
And as she convinces Frank on his thirtieth birthday, that this can
be their only way out of the life that seems to be the norm for couples
in the '50s, they begin to head down a delusional revolutionary road
of their own. |
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They then
weave their pipe dreams, and laugh at others who look upon them
with a sense of disbelief that they would be leaving all of
what they have, save for John Givings (Michael Shannon). John,
the son of their real estate agent Helen Givings (played by
Kathy Bates, yet another Titanic reunion!) is the only one who
admires that they do not want to live in the 'hopeless emptiness'
anymore but he is shown to be undergoing psychiatric therapy,
and hence his blatant honesty and keen observation is meant
to be a sign of his mental incapacity, not his admiration of
the couple.
But as the film progresses, circumstances for both Frank and
April change, leading to a stark sense of discontent and different
priorities. And watching how their dreams change into full blown
nightmarish scenes, coupled with spots of brilliant acting from
Leonardo and Kate, both of which have truly come of age as actors
since they last made millions cry in Titanic. Frank and April
are bogged down with the same issues that perhaps couples no
longer have to deal with; an exit route from problems seems
to not exist in the suburbia of the '1950s |
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Yet Sam Mendes' Revolutionary Road does not allow one to connect with
the couple, it is intense and dark, and it brings with it this air
of cold detachment that one picks up on from the characters, particularly
Kate Winslet. However Revolutionary Road does reconnect with the debates
of modern day living: the quest for a meaningful job, whether marriage
is a bond of soul, body and mind, and how much of what we do is dictated
by society's norms; that one seems to conform to unintentionally.
Sam Mendes tells this tale of unspoken questions extremely well, as
he did in American Beauty, but while 'Singletons' may look on this
film and applaud their choice to be single, for someone who is married,
this film may speak reams about the choices married couples make.
It speaks of the quiet desperation, that catchphrase of which much
has been written about, and in recent years, the sitcom Desperate
Housewives has embodied in an overdramatic manner.
But Revolutionary Road is neither overdramatic nor glamorous. It is
snappy, intelligent and boasts fine acting - proof of which is Kate
Winslet's win as Best Actress at the Golden Globe awards, that has
made her an Oscar favourite. As one of the many films that are in
the running for the ongoing award season, it holds its own. A must
watch, even for those who do not believe in the 'hopeless emptiness'
of suburban living.
-- Saba Imtiaz
*YUCK
**WHATEVER
***GOOD
****SUPER
*****AWESOME
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