Review: Revolutionary Road

When reduced to the basics, there are two types of stories: comedy and tragedy. Revolutionary Road is a film so gripping that being a fly on the wall of a suburban home has never been such an emotional drain, except in maybe one other film--American Beauty. Not coincidentally, both films are directed by Sam Mendes.

Revolutionary Road takes in a short time span of the lives of Frank and April Wheeler, two 30 year-old people living in the 1950s. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet play the leads, and again, prove why both of them are two of the best actors of this generation. The film almost immediately has our two characters break into a fight about how their lives are going. Right away it's clear that Frank is one to talk things out so they can be resolved quickly. His words are often so truthful and penetrating that they hurt. April, the complete opposite, believes that silence is the answer. She just needs to think. As with all relationships, when the members have the opposite ideas as to how to solve a disagreement, like Frank and April do, it ends badly.

Frank is stuck in a boring day job that he hates. He admits he hates it. His father worked at that company for twenty years, and he always hoped to God that he wouldn't end up the same. The only place he'd ever felt alive was when he visited Paris.

Despite having two kids, Frank and April's marriage can best be described as failing. April has given up on her aspirations to be an actress and now stays at home with her two kids. Monotony and routine are killing this family. And suddenly, on a whim, April thinks to move to Paris. They have money saved up. Frank can figure out his calling. She can get a secretarial job to support them. It seems perfect. This is their fantasy, their hope, their dream, and it resuscitates their marriage. They tell their friends and finally feel like they're living again, while ignoring a few practical problems, the looming one being that in the 1950s it was completely unacceptable, socially, for the woman to support the family by herself.

The cast of this film is small, but each character pulls one of the strings to the story. A 'insane' son of the Wheeler's friends is introduced to our protagonists to help him be rehabilitated. The Wheelers are seen as the perfect couple from the outside, but they are anything but that. Instead of the normalcy of the Wheelers rehabilitating this insane man, his lack of tact and reserve tugs the truth out of others, forcing them to realize their faults out loud instead of letting them brood.

The film is a refreshing example of how strong a film can be with bare essentials. To tell a fantastic story we don't need million dollar special effects or a huge cast. You need real, true human emotions, human problems. When watching this film, you may sympathize with both Frank and April, but undoubtedly feel that one is 'right' and one is 'wrong.' Each person will have a different opinion and a different reason why. That is why this film is so great--the concepts of right and wrong are blurred to the point where nothing is discernible other than what these characters feel.

Rating: 7/7