REVOLUTIONARY ROAD (2008): Recipe for audience frustration
January 24th 2009 06:11
Category: No Category
Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet play it one more time in Revolutionary Road
In a far cry from Titanic (where the pairing of the two leads was glaringly and humorously mismatched in terms of maturity), April (Kate Winslet) and Frank’s (Leonardo DiCaprio, all grown up) eyes meet across a room at a party. Instant attraction is further enhanced by their shared disdain for convention – this is as far as character establishing goes. In the next scene the Wheelers are living married life the very idea of which they so abhorred, raising two kids in the suburbs, she a failed actress, he miserably working for the same company in which his father spent his life toiling. And so it goes. She cooks, he has a meaningless affair and the clichés pile up as surely as they were meant to, and hold hands without actually going anywhere.
Enter John (Michael Shannon), son of another suburban couple, Mr and Mrs Givings (Richard Easton and Kathy Bates), and a mathematical genius whose unconventional views and anti-social personality did not suit his mother’s chosen lifestyle. Therefore she had him institutionalized and electroshocked (that fantastic archaic method of incapacitating one’s relations; today we use the much more civil method of popping antidepressants to numb ourselves and our kids), which does away with his academic talents but, to the chagrin of Mrs Givings, enhances his personality and penchant for constant, blunt truth-telling. The Wheelers are initially charmed, as he reminds them of their pre-suburbs youth and attitudes. That is until he starts mercilessly pointing out their own complacencies and weaknesses, becoming a catalyst in a downward spiral of relationship disintegration. Poor choices, lack of proper communication, being stuck in a rut of self-denial, hypocrisy, male/female power struggles, suburban entrapment, etc - we have seen it all before, and see it every day – if we choose to look for it, in the glass half empty sort of way. Voilà, the punchline: some things about human nature do not appear to change through the ages.
Michael Shannon as John Givings, about to wreak havoc in Revolutionary Road
Despite excellent performances across the board, with Shannon a standout acknowledged by an Oscar nod, and beautiful cinematography by Roger Deakins, there isn’t much to recommend in Revolutionary Road. It leaves a bitter aftertaste in one’s mouth by design, but without in-depth reflection such confrontation veers towards meaningless recycling of familiar subject matter. Madden misses the opportunity to capture any transcendental truth in this material, failing to rise up to his own high standards. The characters do elicit empathy – one has a distinct urge to jump in there and shake them, which again explains the impact of Shannon’s performance – that is essentially what his character does, just not enough times. Maybe Revolutionary Road was intended for people such as Mrs Givings but unfortunately they are unlikely to watch it, and the rest of us don’t need more dreariness, thank you very much. Unless exasperation is the feeling you want to explore, then by all means, go ahead.
Review by Patricia Bieszk
© Copyright P. Bieszk 2009
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