Movie Review: Revolutionary Road
By Matthew Huntley
January 7, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
In the movies, there's always a wrench thrown into this pattern that gives the story its juice. In American Beauty, a white-collar advertising executive becomes enamored with a high school girl; in Far From Heaven, a 1950s housewife befriends a black man and discovers her husband is a homosexual; and in Revolutionary Road, the latest in the genre, a once-adventurous couple grows apart when the husband favors security and the wife chases after ambition. The two are not compatible.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet star as Frank and April Wheeler, who meet at a small party and exchange their ideas and dreams. Frank mentions his love of traveling and April tells him she'd like to become an actress. It seems like the world is in the palm of their hands - they're young, they're not tied down and they both have big aspirations.
Cut to Frank sitting in the audience at one of April's plays in a local high school. It's 1955 and Frank and April are now married, living in a verdant suburb of Connecticut. April's performance is poorly received. She and Frank leave the theater angry and bitter. On the way home, Frank pulls over to the side of the road during one of the couple's many arguments. The situation almost turns violent as Frank pounds on the roof of their car.
The next day is like any other: Frank leaves for work while April stays home. Frank works at Knox Business Machines in New York City, although neither he nor his colleague (Dylan Baker) can say for sure what Knox does. Frank's father also worked for the company and he's just beginning to realize the more b.s. you dish out, the higher up the ladder you climb. Frank is miserable at his job and turning 30. To celebrate, he asks a secretary out to lunch and sleeps with her, which, you might say, is his way of relieving stress. That night, he comes home to April and their two kids, who sing "Happy Birthday."
To reinvigorate their marriage, April proposes that she, Frank and the kids move to Paris. Her plan is to shake things up a bit - she'll work as a secretary at the American embassy while Frank stays home with the kids and uses his extra downtime to think, read and figure out exactly what he wants to do. Frank hesitates at first but goes along with April's offer. Their next-door neighbors, the Campbells (David Harbour and Kathryn Hahn), are stunned and afraid to admit they're jealous. Whoever heard of such a crazy idea?
As Frank and April prepare to leave, an executive at Knox offers Frank a promotion. Suddenly, Frank's mundane job begins to have meaning and he reconsiders moving because he's afraid he might not have the same opportunity anywhere else. April feels cornered - she wants to be released from conformity but her husband doesn't feel the same. She's also pregnant. If she stays, she'll feel like she's "no use to anyone." April eventually becomes withdrawn, apathetic and numb to everyone around her, but she still has enough energy to duke it out with Frank.
Revolutionary Road is based on the acclaimed novel by Richard Yates, who wrote it in response to Americans' sudden urge to conform in the 1950s. By that time, he said, America's revolutionary spirit had ended because of everyone's growing fear of communism and McCarthyism. Suddenly, people wanted to blend in with everybody else because they were afraid of standing out.
Despite its setting, Yates' novel is timeless. No matter what decade it is, there will always be a sense of traditionalism and familiarity in America to which people, not just couples, grow accustomed, mostly because they feel they have to, as if someone is keeping a checklist. One of the strong questions April asks is, who made these "rules" and why are we obligated to follow them? Why can't April, who feels trapped, simply walk away? Indeed, why does she stay with Frank and why is she carrying his baby? These are questions April can't answer because, deep down, she's also scared of losing her own sense of security.
The film was directed by Sam Mendes, who is no stranger to this kind of material after American Beauty. Like that film, this one has truth and meaning lurking underneath its surface. But Revolutionary Road doesn't try to hide it. The signs are clear and obvious, but I appreciated how Justin Haythe's screenplay refrained from beating around the bush. We see that Frank and April are miserable right from the beginning; the film is about their passions, fears and search for hope in a vicious cycle of what seems like perpetual hopelessness. It isn't a pleasant film to watch, but it is a very useful one. It reminds us, in an entertaining way, how far we could fall if we ever let our safety overpower our instincts.
DiCaprio and Winslet are superbly cast and acutely manifest the anxiety, anger, and restlessness of their characters. They create deep empathy and sympathy for them. Their performances, along with Richard Deakin's ironically high-key photography and Kristi Zea's production design, give the film a disturbingly haunting sensibility. We know something ugly is brewing underneath a facade of happiness.
We know it, Frank and April know it, and John Givings (Michael Shannon), the son of Frank and April's neighbors, Helen and Howard Givings (Kathy Bates and Richard Easton), knows it. John used to be a mathematical genius but was recently treated in a mental hospital. He brings out the film's point that it takes someone deemed a "nutcase" to speak the truth. John is actually one of the sanest characters in the film. His parents may be legally sane, but they either don't see the truth or they deny it.
Revolutionary Road is raw and forcible. It pulls no punches and doesn't care about being easy to watch. The film serves a caveat against the dangers of "safe" living. If we feel trapped by conformity or the "rules" bestowed upon us, we must do something about it (the closing scene offers one solution). The last thing we want is to be unhappy and "no use to anyone," especially ourselves.