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Review: `Revolutionary Road' has no new insights
By CHRISTY LEMIRE,AP Movie Critic AP - Wednesday, December 24
Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet tear each other apart more thoroughly than an iceberg ever could in "Revolutionary Road," a brutal _ and brutally tedious _ depiction of marital malaise.
Director Sam Mendes covered this territory before with more verve and imagination in his 1999 debut "American Beauty." And similar to that film, "Revolutionary Road" carries with it the unmistakable, unwarranted aura of importance, of having Something to Say about the way we live. If only we understood DiCaprio and Winslet's characters, Frank and April Wheeler, and felt they were fleshed out as complex human beings, we might have experienced the intended emotional impact of their lies and cruelties.
DiCaprio and Winslet (Mendes' real-life wife) are longtime off-screen friends reteaming for the first time since the 1997 uberblockbuster "Titanic." They give it their all with energetic, powerful performances.
Nevertheless, Frank and April come off as cogs in service of facile platitudes about the "hopeless emptiness" of a supposedly idyllic suburban existence, their bitter arguments playing like a screechy rip-off of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"
The source material for "Revolutionary Road" is actually the novel of the same name by Richard Yates about a young couple moving to genteel Connecticut with their two kids in the mid-1950s, which Justin Haythe has adapted. Frank takes the train each day to Manhattan, then sits in his cubicle doing a routine job at the same company where his father worked. Drinks with the fellas after work eventually give way to boozy trysts with an adoring secretary (Zoe Kazan).
To reference yet another cultural touchstone, which is inevitable, TV's "Mad Men" examines this endless cycle of ambitions and deceptions, cigarettes and martinis, more searingly each week than "Revolutionary Road" does in its jam-packed two hours. But the production values here are impeccable, with the always-great Roger Deakins providing the creamy cinematography.
April, meanwhile, has long since discarded her dreams of becoming an actress in favor of folding laundry and making small talk with the nosy neighbors; Kathryn Hahn plays Milly, the envious pal next door, while Kathy Bates pops by in perky, judgmental fashion as Helen, the real estate agent who sold the Wheelers their house.
But Frank and April had always lived under the delusion that they were extraordinary, and when April hatches a wild plan for the whole family to pick up and move to Paris, she provides both the spark the marriage (and the movie) needed as well as the catalyst to its unraveling. She figures she can support them all by working as a secretary at a U.S. embassy, for example, giving Frank the time he needs to figure out what he wants to do with his life.
Naturally everyone, including Milly and her husband Shep (David Harbour), thinks this is a ridiculous plan, not just for its impetuousness but because it undermines traditional gender roles by emasculating Frank. But only Helen's mentally unstable son (Michael Shannon) is uninhibited enough to say those words out loud. Shannon definitely shakes things up but his character feels too pat _ that the lone crazy person is the voice of reason feels like too obvious a device.
After a while, Frank and April have made themselves _ and each other _ so miserable, it's as if there's nothing left to salvage. And since Mendes has kept us emotionally at arm's length with his structured, hermetically sealed production, it's hard to care about whether they'll ever find that elusive something.
"Revolutionary Road," a DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Vantage release, is rated R for language and some sexual content/nudity. Running time: 119 minutes. Two stars out of four.
___
Motion Picture Association of America rating definitions:
G _ General audiences. All ages admitted.
PG _ Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.
PG-13 _ Special parental guidance strongly suggested for children under 13. Some material may be inappropriate for young children.
R _ Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
NC-17 _ No one under 17 admitted.
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