Saturday September 26, 2009

Revolutionary Road      

USA 2008         119 minutes    15 certificate
Directed by Sam Mendes, starring Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio

 Sam Mendes’ screen adaptation of Richard Yates’ 1961 novel charts the breakdown of a marriage. The setting is Connecticut 1955: Frank and April Wheeler are apparently living the life, young and beautiful, two children, comfortable home in a well-heeled aspirational suburb. But fatal tensions simmer below the surface. They imagine themselves to be bohemian creatives, resistant to empty consumerism, able to see through the hollow promise of the American Dream. April wants them to move to Paris to allow Frank to unearth his latent literary genius; Frank hates his white collar pen-pushing job, but is afraid of taking the risk, and is secretly seduced by the security and conformity he pretends to despise. They end up trapped, impotent and frustrated in an increasingly fraudulent relationship. Mendes’ consuming drama beautifully captures the era and the milieu, with sumptuous cinematography and production design. And Winslet and DiCaprio are sensational as a couple tearing each other to shreds, Winslet’s performance arguably superior to her Oscar winning turn in The Reader. They’ve come a long way from their last screen partnership as the doomed lovers of the über-sentimental Titanic – surely we are meant to enjoy the irony!

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