Revolutionary Road

Revolutionary Road: Rated R
Director: Sam Mendes
Cast: Leonardo Dicaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates

At the beginning of one of their arguments Kate Winslet asks Dicaprio, "Who made these rules?" and he has no answer but to retreat to some sort of caricatured "rationality". The movie is dark and disturbing if you have ever struggled with the meaninglessness of life. Or the hopelessness of existence. At one point in the movie it seems as though the husband and wife (with two prop-children) are firing off their hollow philosophies/worldviews at one another with no confidence in themselves - Dicaprio's of "You can be happy here" which seems a mere response to Winslet's "Find what makes you happy, leave and you are more likely to find it."

The movie is set in 1955 (with some in 1948, and flashbacks). Dicaprio works at in an Initech-like position similar to the one his father held for years. Winslet is his Stepford wife who has no idea what happened to her dreams of acting and the husband who, "Just wanted to feel life." Michael Shannon plays a good then a bad Deus Ex Machina (I looked it up to make sure I remembered what my Shakespeare Prof had said about this), with a powerful near-concluding line, "Now you'll never have to know what you're made of..." to Dicaprio.

I am fascinated when directors and writers downplay sex. That is done well in this movie, it is taken down a notch. Their marriage seems surreal to me, but I was not alive (or married) in 1955. If Mad Men and Far from Heaven were accurate, then Revolutionary Road is simply more drastic. I recommend Revolutionary Road, but it is not a feel good movie, it is only funny in ways that you're not sure if you should be laughing at. Without having seen "The Reader" I think Winslet totally deserves the oscar. 4.5/5 stars.