Any film pairing Kate Winslet with Leonardo DiCaprio for the first time since billion-dollar behemoth Titantic is inevitably going to incur comparison with that film about the ship that couldn’t sink.
But Sam Mendes’s Revolutionary Road is about as different as you can get. Well, except for the quality of product that is...
Winslet stars as the downtrodden and desperate housewife April Wheeler while Leonardo DiCaprio is April’s boxed-in, unhappy at work and at home husband Frank.
Wasting no time in bringing the two together on-screen, the film opens with a rose-tinted prologue of the night April and Frank met, before soon motoring through the subsequent years to the less rosy present day, 1955. Trapped in a suburban nightmare thanks to the roads they’ve travelled, April and Frank are both feeling stifled and stupefied and find themselves failing miserably at playing happy families.
But when April comes up with an inspired idea on how to reclaim their youthful aspirations, a fire is lit in both their souls and their happiness is born again. All they have to do is see out a few months of monotony, before making their break from the “hopeless emptiness” of ordinary Americana. The only question that remains is: will or won’t they?
Well that would be telling, wouldn’t it? But one thing you can be certain of is that it’ll be a bumpy ride.
Theatrical in tone, Rev Rd is essentially a two-handed, acting tour-de-force from Kate ‘n’ Leo. Sharing an easy chemistry, showing that spark they shared way back in the previous millennium hasn’t diminished, when Kate ‘n’ Leo are together on-screen you really feel as if you are watching present-day cinematic royalty.
Kate is as accomplished and faultless as we’ve come to expect from her (ie. every performance Oscar-worthy) and she’ll surely finally get that elusive Golden Baldie thanks to her 09 double-whammy of Rev Rd and The Reader.
As for Leo, he proves once more what a great actor he has become, losing himself in the character completely and transforming before your very eyes. I think it’s fair to say, the days of pretty boy typecasting are long gone now after a series of seriously good and varied leading men roles (Frank Abagnale Jr., Howard Hughes, Billy Costigan, Danny Archer, Roger Ferris).
Rev Rd is a difficult watch at times, however, especially seeing a once-loving relationship with so much at stake imploding so drastically. It’s also the sort of story where you see the plot points and bad character decisions coming from a mile away. Of course, so compelling is this story that it, luckily, doesn’t really affect your involvement in the unfolding proceedings.
Rev Rd is arguably also overlong, overshooting its climax by about 10-15 minutes. Perhaps a more ambiguous and ambitious ending would have been before the overly-dramatic Vera Drake dénouement? And perhaps, that’s just a matter of taste?
Besides, these are just minor quibbles against an otherwise excellent whole. Be careful who you see it with though, because if one thing’s for sure it’s that Revolutionary Road is definitely not “date movie” material.
[etRating value=“ 4”]
But Sam Mendes’s Revolutionary Road is about as different as you can get. Well, except for the quality of product that is...
Winslet stars as the downtrodden and desperate housewife April Wheeler while Leonardo DiCaprio is April’s boxed-in, unhappy at work and at home husband Frank.
Wasting no time in bringing the two together on-screen, the film opens with a rose-tinted prologue of the night April and Frank met, before soon motoring through the subsequent years to the less rosy present day, 1955. Trapped in a suburban nightmare thanks to the roads they’ve travelled, April and Frank are both feeling stifled and stupefied and find themselves failing miserably at playing happy families.
But when April comes up with an inspired idea on how to reclaim their youthful aspirations, a fire is lit in both their souls and their happiness is born again. All they have to do is see out a few months of monotony, before making their break from the “hopeless emptiness” of ordinary Americana. The only question that remains is: will or won’t they?
Well that would be telling, wouldn’t it? But one thing you can be certain of is that it’ll be a bumpy ride.
Theatrical in tone, Rev Rd is essentially a two-handed, acting tour-de-force from Kate ‘n’ Leo. Sharing an easy chemistry, showing that spark they shared way back in the previous millennium hasn’t diminished, when Kate ‘n’ Leo are together on-screen you really feel as if you are watching present-day cinematic royalty.
Kate is as accomplished and faultless as we’ve come to expect from her (ie. every performance Oscar-worthy) and she’ll surely finally get that elusive Golden Baldie thanks to her 09 double-whammy of Rev Rd and The Reader.
As for Leo, he proves once more what a great actor he has become, losing himself in the character completely and transforming before your very eyes. I think it’s fair to say, the days of pretty boy typecasting are long gone now after a series of seriously good and varied leading men roles (Frank Abagnale Jr., Howard Hughes, Billy Costigan, Danny Archer, Roger Ferris).
Rev Rd is a difficult watch at times, however, especially seeing a once-loving relationship with so much at stake imploding so drastically. It’s also the sort of story where you see the plot points and bad character decisions coming from a mile away. Of course, so compelling is this story that it, luckily, doesn’t really affect your involvement in the unfolding proceedings.
Rev Rd is arguably also overlong, overshooting its climax by about 10-15 minutes. Perhaps a more ambiguous and ambitious ending would have been before the overly-dramatic Vera Drake dénouement? And perhaps, that’s just a matter of taste?
Besides, these are just minor quibbles against an otherwise excellent whole. Be careful who you see it with though, because if one thing’s for sure it’s that Revolutionary Road is definitely not “date movie” material.
[etRating value=“ 4”]
