Revolutionary Road [DVD] [2008]

"Do you know what insanity is?" asks Frank (DiCaprio) of his wife April (Winslet) at one point. I do. The state of mind required to get on the Oscars committee. How could anyone think that Winslet's performance in "The Reader" for which she won, was even half as good as the one delivered here? And how could one of the weaker fields for Best Picture in recent times have found no room for nominating this film? As the other reviewer rightly says, fans of Sam Mendes will be pleased with this film. It doesn't have the humour and post-modern trimmings of "American Beauty", but it is beautifully shot (the upgrade to Blu-Ray worth it for sound and vision), superbly acted and adeptly directed. DiCaprio is really maturing into a great actor and he is in scintillating form here. The film is gripping and yes, at times, harrowing, but it is not quite as simple as the first reviewer makes out. For me, the true motives of man and wife are never offered on neat little fortune cookie slips. The eccentric mathematician John (Shannon) plays a role like the Shakespearean fool, mixing insight with madness after his long subjection to Electro Shock Therapy. That he always gets everything right about the couple is one interpretation. But hit-and-miss would be truer to the tradition Yates is borrowing from, and more in line with my feelings about the film. It is a powerful reflection on the struggle between individuality and conformity, and of the roles of sacrifice and self-deception in such a theatre. Nothing, for me, was more harrowing than the hollowed-out Winslet at breakfast playing the role of the good-natured drudge. As April says before that personal pretence, we don't forget what the truth is, we just get better at lying. Seeing what this means for the Wheelers is great cinema, far and away the "Best Picture" of the last year (shame on you, Hollywood) and a truly cathartic experience. Modern tragedy at its best. Highly recommended.

Great movie delivered on time and in perfect condition by Amazon. Great acting throughout. If your looking for a gritty drama this movie is for you. On the surface they are the perfect couple. Everyone says so. But this is a study of what lives beneath the veneer of perfection. Peeling away the layers it reveals a bleak look at a marriage built on the shaky foundations of a brief tryst. She wants him to be the man she imagined when she met him. Exciting and passionate. He wants her to accept a life less than perfect, boring but safe and comfortable. She feels trapped amongst the manicured monotony of the suburbs. He feels trapped by her morose and his uninspiring job. He thinks more children are the answer. She thinks escaping it all is. They both look elsewhere for a release from the grind. They don't love each other. They don't want to be with each other but they can't bring themselves to admit it. The promise of the dream was too enticing. The tension slowly builds as events steadily escalate to the movie's dramatic finale.

Maybe Sam Mendes masterpiece (along with Skyfall): a tragic, intense and still essential film inspired by 50ies melodrama, without all the sentimental excesses of that genre: here there is no showing off but, when it comes to deeply emotional moments, you are led to them by a balanced and elegant direction and script that let the story naturally unfolds with no cheesy twists or easy use of musical comment like they used to do in the past. Here, despite the truly elegant look of the film (with a stunning photogrpahy that reminds of Edward Hopper and some american photographers) the heart of the story hides a hot, explosive and genuine mix of emotions, dreams and desires that clashes with the oppressing and frustrating mentality of that era, yet maintaining a universal value so you can easily identify with his and her point of view, also thanks to actors splendid performances, who go more for understatement than overacting, thus creating a hidden tension that explodes just in few scenes and make them even more dramatic. I do not think it is just a coincidence that Mendes took the couple from Titanic, giving them the chance after many years, to meet again and picture a completely different love affair, more mature, suffered and true than that. Here there is no glamour, no clichè, but just 2 fantastic grown up actors that give their best performance ever letting the beautiful book (the film is based on) shine in all his dramatic beauty. BLU RAY is fantastic, presenting a perfect hd transfer which really shows the beauty of the cinematography and includes some very interesting extra, from interviews to backstage and a making-of diary by Sam Mendes

I've been a Kate and Leo fan ever since Titanic back in '97. I was delighted to learn that they have remained close friends to this day and I think this is reflected within their performance in Revolutionary Road. The first time I watched this was on a flight back from New York and I must admit I fell asleep and thought 'what a load of b******s' but time is a wonderful thing, and as I've matured so has my taste for films and appreciation of fine actors such as these. The film itself is very well made with good acting but I couldn't help but wonder whether it would have been more at home on the stage as opposed to the big screen. The story is very depressing, I haven't read the book but I am meaning to. I don't think anyone without an interest in movies would enjoy this film, it can be a bit hard-going at times and definately isn't a light-hearted Saturday night in-kinda film. I think we can all relate to aspects of this film at times, particularly the fear that April expresses at becoming an ordinary suburban 50's housewife. I am not married or a mother yet, but it's a fear I too have although I would hope my fate wouldn't match that of Frank and April! It's interesting how Kate and Leo's portrayal really epitimises the expectations we feel we must fulfil in order to live up to society's standards.

The first row begins only five minutes into the movie, and they become set pieces at persistent intervals. They are not as ‘bad’ as Richard Burton’s and Elizabeth Taylor’s magnificent arguments in ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’, but they are certainly just as well acted, despite Kate’s and Leo’s characters lacking the depth and sophistication of those of Burton and Taylor. Kate and Leo are April and Frank Wheeler, a handsome couple in 1950s America, living the dream in the Connecticut burbs. Whilst Frank works in New York City, April becomes a slowly despairing housewife whose dreams of a more fulfilling life are slowly eroded. For April and Frank have plans to run away from what they tell John, an acquaintance, is “the hopeless emptiness of the whole life here.” John perceptively replies, “People are on to the emptiness, but it takes real guts to see the hopelessness.” Later, when their plans change, John will accuse Frank of being “too comfy” in his hopeless emptiness. (Sound familiar? I guess we are all too comfortable in our daily grind.) Meanwhile Kate feels that life in the burbs is draining her vitality. It’s an excellent subject for a film, of course, how we are seduced by the prospect of more money to blind ourselves from the pointlessness of earning it. But this film surprisingly, despite all the arguments and traumas contained therein, lacks bite. It has become here an everyday story of an everyday existence. A reviewer in ‘Philosophy Now’ made great play of the existential core of the movie, but existentialism is the essence of the quotidian. It’s all well done, of course, and the acting is faultless. But when compared to another Kate Winslet film of that year, ‘The Reader’, or to the director’s earlier masterpiece, ‘American Beauty’, we can see what is missing from the heart of ‘Revolutionary Road’, and that is tragedy. It is there, of course, but merely latent and undeveloped, or rather it is misplaced or even lost in the edit. In short, and without giving the plot away, the film should have ended at 1:42 – or 1:44 at the latest. Then, maybe, it might have been worth four stars, but the rest of the film after these timings simply supplies an anticlimax, robbing the story of any tragic denouement that the viewer can mull over when they leave the cinema – or leave the living room to make that essential cup of tea. But even so, the film has a mountain to climb because we do not come to love Frank or April Wheeler as we come to love Lester Burnham of ‘American Beauty’. Frank and April come across as beautiful but largely empty people. Sure they have dreams, but they are indistinct; they are the negative dreams of escape rather than the positive dreams of action and intent. They appear to have no interests, not even the most empty-headed hobbies of their class and era such as golf or flower arranging. They are sad and empty people and we thus find it difficult to relate to any sense of tragedy in their lives. As in that earlier Sam Mendes’s film, the soundtrack is provided by Thomas Newman. In ‘Revolutionary Road’ he equals the high standards of the former movie by here employing a haunting three-note figure that is subtly moulded and transformed depending on the atmosphere of the scene. The commentary in the extras is provided by director Sam Mendes (who was at the time married to Kate Winslet) and screenwriter Justin Haythe. They talk much about the book and the differences between it and the final script. They concede that this is a dark film that was never going to be popular. They also saw the house as a character in its own right, first becoming a symbol of freedom but gradually over time becoming Kate’s prison. Finally, Mendes points out the visual ‘Titanic’ joke that is half-hidden in the film. Other extras on my DVD include ten minutes of deleted scenes and a thirty-minute ‘making of’ documentary.

Revolutionary Road is an interesting drama and Sam Mendes directs it excellently. Kate Winslet is superb as as the unfulfilled housewife and Di Caprio is unnervingly bland as the well intentioned but unexciting husband. This film should be quite dull and boring (it is largely a film about dullness and boredom), yet by the end of it the performances are truly mesmerising. Not a pleasant film, but a film to treasure nonetheless.

This film is a masterpiece of its kind. Adapted from the (strongly reccomended) novel by Richard Yates, it shows the underside of life in the affluent suburbs of Eisenhower's America, through a marriage, and more specifically through the persona of April played by Kate Winslett. This is not a cheerful film, it explores much the same dramatic milieu as Sam Mendes first film American Beauty, though set further back in time. The original novel is surely the fountainhead from which the TV series Madmen sprang and there are crossover moments and images common to both. Kate Winslet is wonderful as April and Leonardo di Caprio plays against his baby face looks as Frank her husband. They are surrounded by excellent supporting performances, the design and the cinematography (the peerless Roger Deakins) are superb and all is held together with another fine score from Thomas Newman, and all lift this above an average 'miserable marriage' movie into high tragedy. The Blu-ray is gorgeous to behold unmissable.

oh my god i love these two. this is not an easy film to watch but my goodness it is worth it. the leads are perfect together and have such a connection in real life that it translates on to the screen. you watch this film like a guilty outsider as they tear each other and their relationship apart. it is genius, sad and a whole other mix of feelings and emotions. you so want it to work for them that you cant look away - brilliant support by Michael Shannon. why hasn't Leonardo Dicaprio won an Oscar?

Wow....that's what I was left saying after I watched the final credits roll up the screen at the end of this movie. Between Kate Winslet acting like a certified, yet somehow sane, nut and Leonard DiCaprio seamlessly playing the helpless husband racked with his own guilt, I felt totally satisfied about spending my well earned[..] on this movie, twice (yes, twice). Now I must admit I think I've seen, like, one Kate Winslet movie ever before this, and I just recently started getting on the DiCaprio bandwagon after watching both The Departed and Blood Diamond in the same year (after that I was hooked on DiCaprio). But after watching Revolutionary Road, I was all aboard team Winslet. She was so captivating in this role, so emotional and raw and riveting all at once. This is one of those movies that you just have to see for yourself and derive your own meaning behind it. It just touched on so many different issues like love, the sanctity of marriage, forgiveness, rage, entrapment, loneliness and helplessness. A young married couple try to live the normal suburban life like so many of their friends have and find out that, with that, comes its challenges, its heartbreak and its own imprisonment and solitude. I ADORED this movie. I felt like the second time I saw it, I picked up even more from it. Watch it, it'll be the best [...] you've spent in a long while. Then come back and let me know what you picked up from it. Ciao Candice Frederick, [...].

Revolutionary Road è un lungometraggio del 2008 diretto da Sam Mendes, basato sull'omonimo romanzo del 1961 di Richard Yates. Film che mette in risalto l'eterna difficoltà tra il seguire le proprie aspirazioni e il conformarsi alla società. L'edizione blu-ray è perfetta, bella anche la confezione. Il costo era di 12 euro.

Ein sehr guter Film, tiefgruendig und bewegend.

Revolutionary Road reminds us how little distance we have come in addressing the established roles in a marriage and in society generally. It is the desperation of life's expectations which lend darkness to every day for the lives of characters who have reached the limit of their patience, but are not courageous enough to step out of the traditional. A wonderfully written, very readable and almost poetic style makes this a fantastic read.

Magnifique Duo Winslet / Di-Caprio;