Revolutionary Road movie review (2008 movie)

Revolutionary Road stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio in a reprisal of their teamwork in the movies (re Titanic). They now deserve to be featured in one of my hubs about "Actors Who Work Well Together". Kate Winslet is a great actress. See my review of The Reader also on HubPages. Leonardo Dicaprio also has wonderful talent as an actor.

In the film, Revolutionary Road, Kate Winslet once again gives a powerful performance with a lot of emotional depth. Leonardo DiCaprio does a great job in Revolutionary Road as well! This film follows the pair who play a married couple but the couple becomes jaded by the notion of married life that involves 'settling down'.

In Revolutionary Road, the characters that Kate Winslet and Leonardo Dicaprio play very convincingly are the married couple April Wheeler and Frank Wheeler of a suburban community.

April Wheeler and Frank Wheeler invested in a beautiful home in a quiet neighborhood to reside with their children, but their positive views about the prospect of living a charmed and quiet family life readily become thwarted. Instead, the ideas that enter their heads are more akin to posing questions such as: have they 'sold out' because life is no longer exciting enough and fly by the seat of their pants?

To the Wheelers, life has become too mundane and routine. To alleviate this feeling, the couple entertains the idea of going to the other extreme. They think that they are ready to pursue more adventure and excitement.

Nudged by April, Frank actually announces his resignation notice from his good paying job. They decide to move to Paris and buy their tickets and everything!

Somehow, they think daily life in Paris will be much more exciting and all their problems will be solved. This impulsive decision seems to temporarily mask or put a veil over their marital problems for now. Nevertheless, in addition to being bored and restless, they do have the problem of infidelity. Frank nonchalantly cheats on April and she in turn cheats as well. Is it 'revenge' or something more?

The notion of there being monotony and drudgery in April's and Frank's lives is highlighted in a scene where Frank is disembarking from the train that he takes for his daily commute to work. He is among many men who look similar, wearing practically the same suit style and walking in a crowd at the same pace. It is a poignant scene in Revolutionary Road.

Frank does not want to be one of the 'ordinary' workers. He feels like if he continues to be one of the ordinary workers, he'll be going nowhere in the cliche 'rat race'. He wants to stand out as an extraordinary person doing extraordinary things with his life. When Frank announces that he is quitting, he feels a sense of relief and enthusiasm to just be able to say that he is quitting his job and moving to Paris.

Some of his co-workers joke and dismiss him as if to say, "Yeah, right. You and the rest of us."

Meanwhile, April is getting very excited too. That is until she learns that she is pregnant. She feels that the pregnancy will hinder their fragile plans and does not even want to tell Leo at first. When she finally tells him about the pregnancy, he can't believe that she waited so long to let him know.

It is at this point in the movie Revolutionary Road that the main characters orchestrate even more acts of desperation. So much so, that the story becomes tragic. I will stop here as not to provide continuing spoilers but I do recommend this film. I, saw it only recently myself, having rented it from the Red Box. I rate it 3/5 stars.

• Based on the novel by Richard Yates
• Adapted to screenplay by screenwriter Justin Haythe
• Directed by Sam Mendes
• Starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio
• Kathy Bates (who plays the Wheelers' realtor) is among the co-stars