A Bleak Period Piece Relationship/Drama That Should Not Go Unnoticed At The Oscars
Written: Jan 11 '09 (Updated Jan 11 '09)
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: Great acting all around, Expert Direction, Fantastic Cinematography
Cons: The melancholly feeling after is unpleasent
The Bottom Line: An extremely well executed film about the stuffy American culture of the 1950's and how easy it was to get completely stuck in it.
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| movieman9000's Full Review: Revolutionary Road |
Revolutionary Road is one of the highest profile oscar contenders this year. With all three key players, star DiCaprio, leading lady Winslett, and director Mendes all being Oscar favorites of the past since all of them have one or more Best Picture winners under their belts, if not an oscar of their own to hold as well, it's easy to see why. The trailer was a bit cheesy for my taste, with a few too many conventions to really truly convince me to go right out and see it. However reviews were decidedly mixed in an interesting way, and with the suredly stunning visuals from Cinematographer Roger Deakins I decided it was worth checking out.
Sam Mendes is actually married to Kate Winslett in real life and I really hope their marriage bears little resemblance to the one in the film. It's not an unrealistic relationship at all and while I can find some similarities between what annoyed me in the trailer and the content spread through the actual film, the trailer should not be a major factor in anyone's decisions about whether or not to see the film. Mendes does a great job of seamlessly implementing many of the generalities of the decade right into the film without being totally obnoxious. They're all noticeable, but Mendes leaves plenty of room for the audience to have their own feelings. The lines and actions throughout are not completely redundant from films of the past. Not everything is totally stereotypical of unhappy couple films of this sort.
As always he takes his time with this film. His films are never extremely long, but they always are about 2 hours with a fairly slow pace. His simplistic style fits right into the decade. He also did a great job getting his two lead actors to look more uptight than they have in their professional careers. This is a film about a stuffy culture and why so many people were unable to escape their "hopeless" lives that seemingly defy all animalistic impulses humans may have. All of this is conveyed very well by Mendes over a short span of time. It seemed as though some of the exposition in the relationship was actually cut out since the trailer was edited as well. This is a smart decision by Mendes because it essentially throws us right into the thick of the complicated and dysfunctional relationship of Frank and April Wheeler about 2 minutes into the film. I've never seen a film with an opening scene quite like the one in this film.
His take on the relationship is not necessarily entirely realistic in all cases, but it's believable that many relationships in the mid 50's functioned in a dysfunctional way like this one did. Mendes's raw take on some of the arguments is a little hard to take because some of the dialogue is insanely harsh and scathing, and secondly because we can relate to them in our own personal lives. The sex scenes are also decidedly realistic. Nothing is romanticized, everything is just thrown up there, there's almost no nudity, but a lot of the love scenes are awkward and seem very honest. If you categorize "Revolutionary Road" as a Romance/Drama it's the least Romantic Romance film in ages. It's dark, it's raw, and while both leads are very attractive, the realism applied to the film will provide any viewer of either sex with very few feelings other than depression or shock.
Roger Deakins's visual style is perfect for this film. He makes the colors rich and the shadowed over white's and floral wallpaper pops right off the screen. He's positively the best cinematographer in the business and I hope Mendes continues to work with him, and I can't wait to see how many oscars the guy's up for this year. He had two worthy nominations last year, but was snubbed when it came to winning the award.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslett are the two names generating all the buzz with this films release. They are both nominated for Golden Globes for the film, and with DiCaprio's "Body of Lies" bombing with audiences and critics this is his only shot at an oscar this year. Winslett is more fortunate as her supporting performance in "The Reader" may actually earn her two nominations this year. They are both fantastic actors and this film brings us nothing less than anyone would expect from either of them. DiCaprio is excellent as a working man bored with his job and bitter about being stuck in a place he never wanted to be, a stereotypical one. A suburban heaven of sorts. Winslett certainly is not overshadowed by him with her portrayal of a housewife who feels as though her life has gone down a completely different path with her husband than she had expected when they were married. She feels particularly numbed by her suburban life and decides an escape is necessary for the couple to survive. But who would've ever thought that both of these fine actors would be completely blown out of the water by a character actor like Michael Shannon. Shannon has talent that has never been tapped into, at least not in a film that I've ever seen and he steals the show in the two scenes he appears in. His portrayal of a brutally honest man who's absolutely fed up with the culture is a little conventional, but he takes it to a new level. I can't wait to see him in a leading role at some point in the future because I never knew he had this kind of talent.
Justin Haythe's adapted screenplay from the book by Richard Yates is handled by the best of all the artists in the business who could've executed it. It's not completely conventional the way the story starts and finishes, but some of the generalizations made in the film are annoyingly obvious. Not everything here is "Revolutionary" like the title might suggest. These stereotypes of the culture are simply handled in more raw and straight up fashion than ever before. The scripts greatest strength is it's dialogue. The 50's dialogue is expectedly conformative, however the scathing insults spewed during arguments often made the entire theater gasp. I see a little influence, even on the script from Mendes's "American Beauty", especially in the moments when the characters seem to feel shockingly numb and detached. The screenplay does have a sharp focus, and while it possibly makes it's point about the culture one to many times it works nonetheless. The way the plot is tied off is a little too neat, and while it's certainly tied off in a black bow, it just seems a tad abrupt and it doesn't completely work. The very end of the film however reminds me of the end of "No Country for Old Men". It ends in a very thematic way, not on some sort of plot point.
"Revolutionary Road" is a powerful film, and while there is no violence, it's still pretty intense in some scenes. While you're walking out of the movie you may feel deeply sad, but let the film sit awhile and it will grow on you. Do not judge it immediately, and if you see it with a friend or a spouse discuss it. I have a hard time thinking that you can't at least appreciate the film, but I happened to love it upon further thought. It's realistic, it's hard hitting, and it's hard to take, and Mendes's pacing makes it possible to swallow this nasty pill in a couple hours.
9/10
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Serious Movie
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Script
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Epinions.com ID:
movieman9000
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Member: Adam Gold
Location: Arcadia, CA, USA
Reviews written: 39
Trusted by: 10 members
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