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

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I know I'm a little behind on the curve, but today was the first time I saw the 2000 movie 'The Beach' with Leo DiCaprio.

This movie seems to be a perfect, almost classic example, of a movie with a fantastic first half -- maybe even first two thirds -- and an ending so awful it has to be said twice. The ending was awful.

The story starts with some witty voice-over with solid characterization for Leo; we get his philosophy on life and why he'll do anything, like take a shot of snake blood. Then he gets to the island, moving past some gun-wielding drug henchmen, and eventually makes it to the Beach, a society of about thirty people who live in this paradise where everyone does their small share of work a day, and the rest of the time is spent high on marijuana and playing sports and having sex.

I don't even gripe about the obscenely obvious plot point of Leo tracing the map for his 'friends' in the beginning, though I would've liked for it to surfaced earlier, and the principle conflict to be something else.

The problem with the movie is no central focus, with the movie making multiple stabs at problems and hoping four mediocre plots will amount to one great one. Here's a tip: it never does. All right, sometimes it does, but we need to A) LOVE the characters, B) LOVE the scenarios, and C) it has to be witty. An example that comes to mind is 'Love Actually,' though many movie based on vignettes and handfuls of characters pull this off. But 'The Beach' is not a vignette movie, therefore fails miserably.

Leo being stationed in isolation to watch for the newcomers is when the movie jumps the shark. The movie even stoops so low as to parody a video game, which is so terrible that I will not describe it, and also pray that you never have to see it. Talk about being thrown out a movie. It's even worse than if Tyler Durden was splicing penises into your film reels.

So we get thirty minutes of Leo playing Rambo, with the headband and everything. The movie promises, at first, a focus on this perfect society, then shifts to themes of imaging your life alone, to the morality of mercy killings, to an unfortunate ending where everyone lives happily ever after. A movie like this does not deserve a happy ending. Actually, allow me to rephrase.

The definition of a 'happy ending' is always redefined, in every movie, according to the circumstances the characters are in. In 'Fight Club,' the Narrator shoots himself in the face, yet he's rid of Tyler Durder and kind-of ends up with Marla. That's close to a happy ending. In 'Titanic' Rose loves Jack and does all the things she never would've done without meeting him. That's pretty happy.

The acceptable happy ending for 'The Beach' should have been Leo getting off the island with his original two friends, while the others are either left ambiguously on the island, or maybe everyone gets off, but that should not have happened without at least one important character dying. The ending that made the cut involves, basically, everyone saying "oh well," and returning home unharmed. No one believes strongly enough in the Beach, in themselves, in the paradise, in their drugs, or in their love to stand up and fight. And a story with characters who appear strong but are that passive doesn't deserve recognition.

So my advice, if you have not seen this film, is to watch the first hour and fifteen minutes, shut it off, and then think up your own ending. It will be better, I promise.

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Oh, man...

The Departed is easily the best movie of the year so far. Nice to see Scorsese go back to his gangster style and produce a high-tension, thickly layered, fast-paced drama. I know not everyone appreciates Leo DiCaprio, but he's becoming one of the best actors of this generation, coming far from his 'Titanic' days. Matt Damon is always solid, and Jack Nicholson, well, is Jack Nicholson. The 2.5 hour run time goes by so fast, half the time I'm still comprehending what happened the scene before and it's already on a new plot twist. Fantastic writing.

9.5/10 at least.

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