The Movie
Frank and April Wheeler are a couple of New York City sophisticates who fall in love (or so we assume) and settle into a life of loud, angry suburban desperation in Sam Mendes' film Revolutionary Road, based upon the acclaimed novel by Richard Yates. Unfortunately, somewhere around the 40th or 50th knock-down, drag-out shouting match between Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) and April (the always charming Kate Winslet, again Americanized for her role), I felt like I had just heard enough.
Even before this movie, I've seen it all before, and we spend far too much time before, during, or in the midst of the next ugly confrontation about lost dreams, broken promises, crushing self-pity and ultimately some heavy-handed melodrama. It's a story that needs to be shared with modern generations I suppose, but it is a tough watch. The supporting cast relieves some of the pressure, no one more so than Oscar-nominated Michael Shannon as a mentally unstable would-be family friend who speaks his mind a little too freely.
Also take a gander at Joe Lozito's somewhat like-minded take on Revolutionary Road, as well as Lexi Feinberg's more enthusiastic Revolutionary Road response. Three movie reviews for the price of one!
The Picture
The Sound
The Dolby TrueHD mix is front-heavy surely, with clear dialogue. I only missed one line (owing to the delivery). But very little effort appears to have been made to impress the home theater crowd. Even basic stuff like a rainstorm seems a little flat, although cars driving by do offer a three-dimensional presence. Thomas Newman's melancholy music flavors everything, all the more effectively for its bittersweet simplicity. The one standout sequence sonically takes place in a nightclub, which actually does pulse with the you-are-there beat of a couple of live performances.
The Extras
The audio commentary by director Sam Mendes and screenwriter Justin Haythe does indeed add a lot of welcome perspective to the proceedings, while "Lives of Quiet Desperation: The Making of Revolutionary Road" (29 minutes) goes even further, including lots of on-camera interviews. "Richard Yates: The Wages of Truth" (26 minutes) reveals the great but little-known author, and the 15 deleted scenes--also with optional director/writer commentary--total 25 minutes. All of the above special features are in HD, and three deleted scenes in particular are in surprisingly good quality compared to much of what I've seen lately.
Final Thoughts
Covering much the same ground as TV's Mad Men; the painful hollowness of the post-war American Dream, with many of the same specific trappings; Revolutionary Road is nonetheless a prestigious exploration of familiar themes, and a well-produced recreation of a bygone era.
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