Revolutionary Road (DVD)

I’d have liked to have been at Kate Winslet’s house when husband Sam Mendes (American Beauty) said to her that he wanted to direct a film about how some people can feel trapped in their marriage once their dreams get suffocated by the routine of jobs and kids – plus he wanted her to star in it. You have to think he was picking his words carefully with that one.

Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio play April and Frank, a 1950s couple who married believing their romance would ensure them a wonderful life. However with him soon joining the millions of others in the office rat race and her consigned to a life of kids and housework, neither feels at all fulfilled. Alice dreams of going to Paris, making money as a translator to support the family. However while Frank is initially happy to go along with this Bohemian dream, when he’s offered a promotion, surely they’d be foolish not to accept it? Living their lives of quiet desperation, the facade is finally destroyed by a dinner guest who’s supposedly got mental problems, but it may just be that he’s unable to meekly accept the stultifying hypocrisy of middle-class life.

The movie has to negotiate a difficult balancing act as by necessity neither of the two leads can be that likable. This is not a film where we’re supposed to believe Frank and April have loads to offer the world but the tragedy is that it’s being stifled by society. They are ordinary, boring people with their problems stemming from the fact their marriage is essentially built on nothing, while their dreams and aspirations are rarely more concrete than wanting something they don’t have, while having little idea what that something is. They are selfish and angry, depressed and dull, spending most of their time shouting at one another.

It’s not tough to understand why the book the movie is based on has gone unfilmed for 48 years, despite endless attempts to adapt it. Richard Yates angry and unsentimental novel is a tough proposition for cinema and was never going to make a film that could be described as fun.

To be honest, if it weren’t for two excellent performances from Winslet and DiCaprio, Revolutionary Road would have become one hell of a slog (it’s tough enough going as it is). Thankfully they’re very good, turning their Titanic chemistry into the story of what happens after the great romance and you’ve got the rest of your life to live. There are times when even they struggle with a script that keeps them rather one-note and refuses to allow much empathy, but they do a good job of keeping you watching people who by their very nature aren’t that interesting as individual human beings, and for whom questions will always be left unanswered, largely because there are no real solutions. It’s for this reason some critics have disliked the movie, wanting some sort of neat explanation for everything at the end, without realising this was never going to be that movie, and nor should it have been.

The DVD special features aren’t that extensive, but what you get ain’t bad. There’s a pretty good audio commentary with director Sam Mendes and screenwriter Justin Haythe, along with a half-hour documentary on the making of the movie and a few deleted scenes . The Blu-ray features are slightly more extensive, with a documentary on the writer of the book the film also included.

This is a tough film and not a fun one. In order to explore its themes it shoves you into a world that’s often rather tedious and sometimes uncomfortably voyeuristic. The movie’s power is in the thoughts and ideas you take away with you after delving into a depressing world that’s rarely been shown on screen in such an unsympathetic manner.

Overall Verdict: A character study of shallowly disatisfied, angry people is never going to be fun, but the performances are great and it certainly gets you thinking.

Special Features:
Audio Commentary With Director Sam Mendes and Screenwriter Justin Haythe
‘Lives Of Quiet Desperation: The Making Of Revolutionary Road’ Featurette
Deleted Scenes

Reviewer: Tim Isaac