Movie Review: Revolutionary Road
By Matthew Huntley
January 7, 2009
The crippling effects of American suburbia have long been a topic of discussion in Hollywood movies. Filmmakers and audiences seem fascinated by the way routine lifestyles can cause relationships to crumble and families to implode. That's probably because everyone - be it a filmmaker or a member of the audience - sees a little bit of themselves on-screen and wonders if they too fell victim (or are falling victim) to the classic suburban cycle of the 1950s: marriage > house > children > retirement > death.
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?
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