Revolutionary Road

Genre: Drama
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates, Michael Shannon,
Director: Sam Mendes

The overall consensus formed after the viewing, and especially, the Golden Globe Awards nominations for this movie, is that “Revolutionary Road” is a brilliant adaptation of Richard Yates' famous novel with the same name.

Directed by Sam Mendes, Kate Winslet's husband, the movie posed a challenge for both cast and directing crew. It was Kate's idea, in the first place, for Sam to direct this movie and as it turned out, Sam had doubts about whether he could say something new with such a storyline, referring of course to American Beauty, where he depicted almost the same plot and human anguishes, empty life, middle age crisis, romantic fantasies etc. To adapt a movie to Yates' novel was even more difficult, because whereas in American Beauty the movie had falling roses and a lot of skin to flash the viewer out of numb moments, Yates' work is a novel full of beautiful emotional descriptive passages that, unfortunately, could not be transmitted on the screen. The lack of action though is brilliantly and very well replaced by the the actors' play and gestures, which prove how worthy was Kate to get those Golden Globes after all.

Reuniting Winslet and DiCaprio from  the epical Titanic, the movie appeals to a lot of the tragic ship-wreck romance fans. But I guess they will take the most of the blow because this movie is far from anything resembling romance, in fact, is at the exact opposite. Revolutionary Road follows the destruction of Frank & April's marriage in the 1950's suburbia background where both of them will choke on perfection and standards.

So the movie is more than it seems with those perfect houses, perfectly coifed suburbia wives and viewers should better be aware of the sweet talk happening on screen, because at any moment the movie twists into verbal attacks and desperation. Most actors couldn't have supported such contrasts with veridical acting, but Winslet and DiCaprio make a wonderful viewing experience.

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