'Revolutionary Road' review by Jake Boyle
Revolutionary Road made excellent proof back in 2008 that you can make a film as Oscar baiting as you like, but the Academy will still totally ignore DiCaprio. While the world wasn't exactly crying out for more portraits of beautiful, well-off couples squabbling about how trapped they feel in their pretty desirable situation (director Sam Mendes having already created the epitome of this in American Beauty), the cast alone is certainly a draw.
Alright, so that might not be an entirely fair summation of the premise, but it definitely is the cast that keeps this film afloat. Kate Winslet and DiCaprio are just as strong leads as you'd expect them to be, her pleading eyes and quivering expression combating his looks of lostness and confused frustration, setting the tone well for the inevitable breaking of the dam as both actors do what they're best at - high emotion, namely unrepentant sorrow and anger. There's strong support in the form of the ever-versatile Kathryn Hahn, Kathy Bates wringing a lot of complications out of a pretty simplistic character, and an excellent Michael Shannon stealing his few scenes as walking tension, injecting needed electricity into every scene with the merest of mumbles. Both the drama and the acting of the film follow an effective pattern (but still notably a pattern) of lengthy restraint followed by outbursts of extreme frankness.
Predictability is an issue with Revolutionary Road. The obstacles that the characters encounter in their attempt to break off the 'shackles' of their suburban existence (more on that shortly) are entirely foreseeable, so there's not really any drama to be gained from them. On the whole the film's problem might be an inflated sense of importance - although the emotion delivered really packs a punch, it's not ever really unnoticeable that the character's circumstances, while obviously troubled, are not exactly as dire as portrayed. The choice of 'well-paying job or risking living out our dreams', while utterly real and complex, is not actually an especially interesting one to watch play out. There's a comment on the fraudulence of The American Dream here, but the dialogue and especially the sets are too clean-cut and flowery for any critical message to really come through. There's a lot of slow, longing shots from camera angles that heighten how lovely everything looked. It seems to be aiming for thoughtful and beautiful but more often than not it ends up coming across as somewhat self-satisfied and ponderous. It's a shame because there's evidence of potential for smarter and more intuitive storytelling present; one excellent scene has the camera focus on a silent but solemnly fuming Winslet as the other characters scream in confrontation in the background, simultaneously demonstrating a capability for raw emotion and for subtly stylistic transmission.
The acting in Revolutionary Road is sublime, so much so that it'd be worth watching for that alone, and there are moments (and occasionally whole scenes) of excellence, when the writing and direction reaches the same heights as the actors. However, it's never enough to compensate for the story's own obviousness and unimportance. A promising and still enjoyable film is let down by a failure to properly convey the darkness and genuine arguments lying at the fringes of the chosen theme.
Alright, so that might not be an entirely fair summation of the premise, but it definitely is the cast that keeps this film afloat. Kate Winslet and DiCaprio are just as strong leads as you'd expect them to be, her pleading eyes and quivering expression combating his looks of lostness and confused frustration, setting the tone well for the inevitable breaking of the dam as both actors do what they're best at - high emotion, namely unrepentant sorrow and anger. There's strong support in the form of the ever-versatile Kathryn Hahn, Kathy Bates wringing a lot of complications out of a pretty simplistic character, and an excellent Michael Shannon stealing his few scenes as walking tension, injecting needed electricity into every scene with the merest of mumbles. Both the drama and the acting of the film follow an effective pattern (but still notably a pattern) of lengthy restraint followed by outbursts of extreme frankness.
Predictability is an issue with Revolutionary Road. The obstacles that the characters encounter in their attempt to break off the 'shackles' of their suburban existence (more on that shortly) are entirely foreseeable, so there's not really any drama to be gained from them. On the whole the film's problem might be an inflated sense of importance - although the emotion delivered really packs a punch, it's not ever really unnoticeable that the character's circumstances, while obviously troubled, are not exactly as dire as portrayed. The choice of 'well-paying job or risking living out our dreams', while utterly real and complex, is not actually an especially interesting one to watch play out. There's a comment on the fraudulence of The American Dream here, but the dialogue and especially the sets are too clean-cut and flowery for any critical message to really come through. There's a lot of slow, longing shots from camera angles that heighten how lovely everything looked. It seems to be aiming for thoughtful and beautiful but more often than not it ends up coming across as somewhat self-satisfied and ponderous. It's a shame because there's evidence of potential for smarter and more intuitive storytelling present; one excellent scene has the camera focus on a silent but solemnly fuming Winslet as the other characters scream in confrontation in the background, simultaneously demonstrating a capability for raw emotion and for subtly stylistic transmission.
The acting in Revolutionary Road is sublime, so much so that it'd be worth watching for that alone, and there are moments (and occasionally whole scenes) of excellence, when the writing and direction reaches the same heights as the actors. However, it's never enough to compensate for the story's own obviousness and unimportance. A promising and still enjoyable film is let down by a failure to properly convey the darkness and genuine arguments lying at the fringes of the chosen theme.
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