Revolutionary Road: A road to nowhere

Jan 27 2009 Pierce Hunt, Surrey Herald

REVOLUTIONARY ROAD

Eleven years after their on-screen pairing in Titanic, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio are back in each other's arms, but this time Winslet's real-life husband Sam Mendes is in the director's seat.

The Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning film sees the reworking of Sam Yates's 1961 novel. But for all the hype surrounding the film, it's sombre and more often than not depressing mood fails to create a winning formula.

Residing in a 50s Connecticut suburb, Frank (DiCaprio) and April Wheeler (Winslet) are raising their two children. But suburban life doesn't seem all it's cracked up to be for the couple, with April increasingly agitated with her mundane existence of playing house.

Frank's daily routine is also starting to get the better of him. His fear of turning into his father has finally arrived to haunt him. Frank works for Knox Business Machines, just like his father did, and he despises his job. On his 30th birthday he takes the afternoon off work along with a new young secretary. After an afternoon of a few too many cocktails, they end up back at her place.

Feeling like life has passed him by, without actually living himself, Frank resigns himself to the fact that his drab ways have sucked out all the ambition and dreams he once harboured.

With April's state of mind also edging towards meltdown, she suggests a radical new direction in the family's life: moving to Paris.

Overjoyed with their new plans, the process of packing and tying up loose ends begins, but things don't quite go to plan.

Over at Knox, Frank is offered a promotion with a hefty pay increase, an offer he has to take seriously.

And if Frank's promotion wasn't the nail in the Paris coffin, then the news of April's impending pregnancy is. She is devastated that they can no longer live out their dream.

The married couple's communication issues are the fundamental reason why their lives have become unbearable.

The frustrations both individuals show boil over into volatile confrontations.

It's clear that there is no longer any love shared between the two. But the constant hypocrisy from both camps continues to raise blood pressures to boiling point.

Incarcerated in their middle-class bubble, Frank and April's bitter rivalry, at times, becomes very uncomfortable viewing.

Both DiCaprio and Winslet are flawless in their roles, but it's the story itself which feels a little empty.

Sam Mendes manages to capture the desperation of both the Wheelers impeccably, and also shines a light on April's turmoil, which isn't portrayed as in depth in the novel.

The pain of missing out on the move of a lifetime takes its toll on April, with severe consequences.

Granted, the acting is superb, but as a story it leaves you feeling a little deflated.

5/10