Revolutionary Road
Rating: 6/10
“Revolutionary Road”, the first post-Titanic reunion of Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, is first and foremost a showcase of some pretty amazing acting. Kate and Leo play a married couple with two kids trying to make good on the hopes and ideals they held during their courtship. The story carries a nuclear amount of potency and is certain to make a lot of people look at their own marriages and relationships, but it doesn’t really deliver.
Sam Mendes, Winslet’s real-life husband and director of another suburban hell film, American Beauty, provides a wonderful backdrop for his two stars. The piece plays in the 1950s and everything is spot on. Slow sweeping shots within the house on Revolutionary Road display an impressive attention to detail. Between this obsessive attentiveness and the space given to his actors, the story itself massively suffers. In addition to a couple of holes, (where are their two kids the whole film?), you can pretty much see where things are going. I also anticipate that this is the kind of movie where sides will be taken divided by gender. The guys will side with Leo’s character, the ladies with Winslet’s. The actors definitely put on a good show, but the story fails to give the character’s much depth.
Another point of criticism, (and I sort of hate to go there but have to), is Leo’s uncanny trademark boyish look. Don’t get me wrong, he gives a brilliant performance here, but the guy just does not seem to age. He could literally play a teenager. Here he’s placed in a very grown-up setting and is seen grappling with pretty tough issues. He pulls it off, but his looks work against him. They really do.
I don’t think “Revolutionary Road” is really a film for Titanic fans or for those who want a story into which they can sink their teeth. As an actor’s showcase, however, it does have its merits.
