Revolutionary Road
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.90 You Save: $15.09 (75%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.39 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Revolutionary Road
Movie Review: Interesting parallels
Summary: 5 Stars
As many people have already commented on the aspects of this film, I thought I would make a few comments on an interesting parallel I just became aware of in regard to another movie.
Oddly enough, within 24 hours I saw both "The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit," a flick from 1956, and this movie, and they're both so similar that one wonders if the novel this movie was based on was in some way influenced by the 50s novel and subsequent movie. In both movies the couples (played by Gregory Peck and Jennifer Jones in the earlier flick) face the same struggle between security and conformity, the desire to escape a constricting life, and the need to excel and stand out in some way from the herd.
Peck is a successful advertising executive who is haunted by flashbacks from the war, but who has married, started a family, and managed to successfully balance family with career, despite his own reservations about the personal compromises he must make at work. The wife isn't happy with those compromises, always wanting Peck to stand up for his own ideas and be more independent, despite the fact that this would almost certainly put his job security in jeopardy. But like the Winslett character in this film, she wants a different husband and some ways a different life, although not to the extent of her husband quitting and then gallivanting off to Paris.
In this film, again, we have a young couple who want a freer, more alive, more independent life, free from the dull, drab, boring sameness of 50s middle-class life and its strictures and conventions. The difference between this couple and Peck and Jones is that they do indeed at least initially decide to chuck the comfortable middle class life they've set up and move to Europe. But circumstances intervene, and so they're both left with the earlier unhappy compromises that they were trying to break free of--with resulting disastrous consequences for their marriage--whereas in the 50's flick eventually everything works out in the end.
Another interesting parallel is that both men have (although under very different circumstances) romantic dalliances outside of their marriage. In Peck's case, it was during the war when he thought he might die any day, never to see his wife again. In the present movie it's a less forgivable dalliance since it occurs with another women in the office.
Overall a well done movie about a couple who just weren't meant for each other and with interesting parallels to another movie from over 50 years ago.
Movie Review: suburbia tragedy
Summary: 5 Stars
Growing up in the 50's I see a lot of similarities in the predicament this couple find themselves in and the predicament a great number of couples find themselves in during this time period all over the U.S. following WWII and the Korean war and the rise of Hollywood glamour and the promises of the industrial age. A time when Westinghouse and Better Homes and Garden were household words and men were encouraged to bring home the bacon while women were encouraged to be good little house wives and provide a cozy little home and encourage her husband in his daily struggle foraging in the jungle for food. I particularly enjoyed the superb photography. The herd mentality of the fifties exemplified by an army of men all dressed alike in hats , ties and briefcases coming over the horizon as if going to war made its point. This was also the era where corporations began slashing male jobs in order to replace them with less expensive housewives using promises of high paying positions as a carrot. One thing I noticed was the constant reference to communications. Being able to deliver a great sales pitch was considered an asset but in the end it simply turned out to be just a lot of words and empty promises and the only way one can avoid it was to turn it off and tune out. Oh, did I fail to mention how important image was and how people were more concerned with what the neighbors would say than their own lives and how busybodies took advantage of this and used it to fleece people trying to get ahead in life. Being a model couple was the name of the game. and social climbing was the only way a woman could fulfill her need for attention. This was also a time when the industrial/military complex began taking a toll on people's lives. "Barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen", a cliche of the women's movement was also a theme of the movie and the myth on what it meant to be a man from an insecure woman's point of view. The scene of the bread winner trying to explain how the new computer being made up of hundreds of vacuum tubes was exemplifying the lives of people in that era living a life in a vacuum as was the mentally ill mathematician whose memory of what he loved to do was erased from his memory through electroshock treatment so he couldn't even recall what he loved to do anymore. The commuter train reminds me of the holocaust films I've seen where people were crammed inside and hauled off to concentration camps.Movie Review: Any1 who dislikes this masterpiece rejects all dark film plots
Summary: 5 Stars
I have to admit that I was never much of a Leonardo DiCaprio fan and I had even written Kate Winslet off as a 'flash in the pan' when she co-starred with him in Titanic. Two Academy Awards and some amazing performances by Kate and equally terrific roles by Leo changed my mind. So, I decided to give Revolutionary Road a look, first on HBO. I was absolutely mesmerized, but I did have negative feelings about the conclusion of the story.. you see I alllowed my conventional taste for cinema to overrule my better judgment in a way. This happens all the time with the public and Hollywood films, and is why so few movies that challenge, trouble, or stir us are ever produced.
I was haunted by what I saw, and decided to watch a second time. This time, I focused on the superb acting ao ably captured by the Director, Sam Mendes ('American Beauty' Director and the soon-to-be-former-'Mr. Kate Winslet'). I noticed faces, expressions, emotion; all real, gritty, searing, heart-rending. The viewer's desire for plot conclusions is thwarted continually, yet the viewer's thirst for challenging material is quenched minute by minute.
Gone, is the 'pretty boy' DiCaprio of 'Titanic.' In his place is the polished, slightly weathered, infinitely deeper actor who fits easily and convincingly into complex adult roles; and there are few more so than Frank Wheeler in this film. Wheeler is a 1950's post Depression dreamer-turned WWII soldier-turned reluctant New York businessman paired with a die-hard idealist wife named April (Winslet). Marital conflict is frequent and intense in the Wheeler marriage as Frank, some will argue, 'grows up' and accepts a successful career and life and friends in suburban Connecticut, while April refuses to really 'let go' of the dreams she once shared with Frank.
Prepare yourself for tension, conflict and surprise dramatic developments. Also, I must mention Milly, unbelievably well-portrayed by actress Kathryn Hahn. Keep your eyes on her face about halfway through the film in a key scenewhere the Wheelers spend an evening at their neighbor's home and reveal their rather unconventional future plans. I'll never forget Hahn in that scene.
* * * * out of * * * * -from one who has given that rating no more than 10 times, ever..
Movie Review: Formulas for Happiness and why they Crumble
Summary: 5 Stars
A half a century ago migration from the noisy high-powered success of the city to the serenity of the suburbs found the path of REVOLUTIONARY ROAD a common one. Richard Yates' novel about the fragility of married commitment in 1955 has been very successfully transformed to the screen by writer Justin Haythe, director Sam Mendes and a perfect cast of actors. All of the soured expectations of that period gel in this superb film - a movie that is difficult to watch at times, mostly because it rings so very true.
Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) and April (Kate Winslet) Wheeler move to Connecticut from New York when the addition of children to their lives of thwarted expectations alter their once dreamy plans for their future. Once in the 'just perfect' little suburb and living in a just perfect little house sold to them by real estate agent
Helen Givings (Kathy Bates) - who has a grown son John (Michael Shannon) who is in a mental institution and has undergone multiple shock therapy treatments that allow him to see things as they are no matter how cruel or rude his views - Frank settles for life in the Knox Business Machines Company, reluctantly following in the footsteps of his father while April attempts to rationalize her dreams of being an actress by appearing in an unimpressive amateur theatrical group. From the opening frames of this claustrophobically suffocating new life the once happy couple shows signs of deterioration of a marriage. The manner in which they couple attempt to dramatically change their boring life is destroyed by the realities of their situation: another pregnancy plays a significant role in the downward spiral of Frank and April's future and we as viewers are forced to watch the castle crumble.
Winslet and DiCaprio are excellent in the lead roles, offering the type of sensitive acting skills that pull the audience into the film. The supporting roles by Kathy Bates, Michael Shannon, David Harbour, Richard Easton and Kathryn Hahn are cameos worthy of praise. Every aspect of the film recreates the 1955 era and in some ways that 'distance' makes observing the film emotionally more tolerable. This is a sad story that has no redeeming end. Well worth the attention it has received. Grady Harp, June 09
Movie Review: One of the best films of 2008.
Summary: 5 Stars
A lot of people who see this film will probably think of that line from "Walden" by Thoreau: "The mass of people lead lives of quiet desperation." Although that line is fitting for his film, I think there was more to it than just that. To tell you the truth, I think the main character was April Wheeler. She reminded me of Nora in "A Doll's House" by Ibsen: she was fiercely independent and trapped within the confines of society during the '50s. I think one of the reasons she was attracted to her future husband, Frank, was because of his feelings of independence and not being afraid to live life to its fullest. But then things happen and people change. April gets pregnant and suddenly finds herself as a Susie-homemaker somewhere out in the suburbs of Connecticut. One moment she has dreams of becoming the next Katharine Hepburn on Broadway, and the next moment she is hosting a tea party for the ladies' auxiliary club in her living room. She is not happy with her life. Frank, on the other hand, is doing well in his life: he's got a wife and kids, a recent promotion that pays a bundle, and some "afternoon delight" on the side. He's not as anxious or unhappy with his life. So what do we have here? Someone who keeps dwelling on the past (April) and someone who is looking towards the future (Frank). It's no wonder the Wheelers are constantly at each other's throats. What I liked about this film was its acute observation of a marriage. How some people in a marriage learn to grow up, accept responsibility, and get on with their lives. And how other people are fiercely independent, were never meant to get married, and never learn to get on with their lives. I realize our society dictates that as humans, we should study hard, go to college, find a job, and get married and have kids. But who's to say that is meant for everybody? It may have been all right for Frank, but certainly not April. "Revolutionary Road" questions the whole structure of our society and that is what I found so brilliant about it. It was unafraid to explore these issues.