Review: Revolutionary Road

Revolutionary Road (2008)
starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates, Michael Shannon, David Harbour, Kathryn Hahn
dir. Sam Mendes


I once had really high hopes for Sam Mendes. American Beauty (1999) has been maligned over recent years and I don't think it is entirely fair. It has problems, but it is also a bristling narrative that has ideas and themes about the roles we are suppose to play in society and how playing those roles can be extremely destructive to the human soul. With the help of Alan Ball's script, it took those ideas and made them quirky and bizarre and overall an emotionally charged experience.

Since then, Mendes seems to have spun down. His narratives have become extremely straightforward and the themes seem to ride along the surface and slap us across the face. Maybe it's the theater director in him, you have to make sure the people in the cheap seats know what's going on.

Revolutionary Road is another example of what happens if you can't live life the way you want to. It's set in the repressed fifties and plays out like a Douglas Sirk film missing all of the subtext. It's a solid drama, but doesn't really carry any emotional punch due to its lack of subtlety. Yes, we get it, DiCaprio is stifled by his lifestyle but can't move past it. Yes, Winslet is an incredibly liberated woman who knows that happiness doesn't depend on the house looking perfect or the roast being prepared properly. Oh, in case we don't get it, they send in Michael Shannon as a "crazy" guy to reiterate.

Shannon is quite good , by the way, for what he's given, as is most of the supporting cast. Winslet shows she's still a class act actress, if there has ever been any doubt. I have problems with DiCaprio at times. He's an odd duck to me because sometimes I feel like he totally inhabits the character and sometimes he plays it like , "This is how an actor acts!" I don't feel that way just about this film, but large portions of his work. I think he should stay away from period pieces in general, it's where he seems weakest, but that's just me.

Part of me wonders if I would have appreciated this film better if the TV show Mad Men didn't exist. It covers a lot of the same themes but keeps them realistic and under the surface instead of blurting it with melodramatic gusto. It gets under the skin instead of molesting you like Revolutionary Road tends to. Did I mind it? No. Will I watch it again? No, but it's a pretty dry season and for some of the energy that is Kate Winslet, it's worth checking out a matinee. Just be prepared for feeling down the rest of the day.

6.8 out of 10