People who give up on their dreams for security reasons are resigned
to comfortable, empty lives. It’s what starts getting under the skin of
Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) and April Wheeler (Kate Winslet). The couple
met at a party, where they fancied each other as the most interesting
people in the room. Now it’s 1955, they’re married with kids, and
Frank’s making it happen with a job he hates. As domestic drama,
Revolutionary Road is technically superb. The film has a pastel
delicacy. It’s the material that’s problematic—harder to take
seriously the more seriously it takes itself. When the Wheelers first
see their home, it’s presented as a beautiful death trap. The
suburb-phobia isn’t as annoyingly prominent as it could have been, but
it’s also key to the film’s overblown negativity. Frank and April are
unhappy, but moving to Paris to figure things out is considered a bad
pipe dream. As Frank and April revert further into their own needs,
they lose sympathetic connection with the audience. Revolutionary
Road becomes the prime victim of its hopelessness. Mendes and
screenwriter Justin Haythe deliver one great character—a comedically
rude neighbourhood truth-teller, played by Michael Shannon. But there
comes a point where one starts puzzling over why everyone’s acting so
hysterically.
This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 4, 2009.