Revolutionary Road

Going to watch a heavy drama about a marriage on the rocks may not sound appealing, but ‘Revolutionary Road’ is also an intriguing psychological thriller.

‘You're sick,’ shouts Leo. ‘And you're a pathetic self-deluded little boy,' cries Kate. On-screen relations have evidently soured since ‘Titanic’.

Frank (DiCapiro) and April Wheeler (Winslet) have a nice house and two kids. They’re supposed to be a happy 1950s American couple. But they’re not.

Frank commutes to an office job in the city and April cleans the dishes at home. Their lives are boring and they know it. Deep down each is raging at the other’s lack of understanding.

Then April has it, why not move to Paris? Frank was there and always said it was the only place where people ‘really live’. They tell their neighbours who react politely, but clearly think the idea to be unrealistic.

Meanwhile, Frank is offered a promotion at work whilst April discovers that she is pregnant. Frank dithers at the critical moment.

Leo and Kate both act superbly. Leo’s role as the male-breadwinner is more consistent, but he plays it with fiery aplomb. Kate’s character develops as the film progresses and in my opinion her acting gets better and better too. Not to say it starts bad at all, but I was paying such close scrutiny to her after all the hype that I couldn’t help finding some of her initial lines and facial expressions melodramatic.

Kathy Bates is excellent as the prim and proper neighbourhood estate agent who remains friends with the ‘perfect couple’ after helping them find their house ten years earlier. She has a middle-aged son who spent some time in a lunatic asylum. Michael Shannon is terrific in this role. Expect fireworks in the scene when he visits the Wheelers for tea with his fussy mother and reserved father.

Revolutionary Road may not sound like too much fun, but you’d be missing out if you didn’t go and see it. One scene made me burst into uncontrollable fits of laughter and the next scene made my girlfriend burst into tears (almost). The existential torment in the film is a lot like that in ‘Fight Club’ but in a realistic domestic setting. Who wouldn’t want to see that?