User reviews

Having been a 50s housewife with children at home and a husband who wanted to be anywhere but there, this movie was familiar territory. How many of us in those years simply packed our dreams away for the immediate necessity of putting food on the table and paying the mortgage? Di Caprio is outstanding, as is Winslet, she having to deal with an American accent along with the tearing emotions. I didn't see that anyone picked up on the final scene, of Kathy Bates and her husband, but to me that was the whole moral of the story - here is where you will end up if you give in to what you know is not right for you. Overall, though, well done - except women in the 50s did NOT wear hats to work!!

A young couple living in 1950's suburbia think they are different from all the other families living the American Dream. Although, they soon find out that not every dream comes true and they fall exactly into the situations they didn't want to be in. Their marriage is falling apart, they have trouble raising their children and they want out of this lifestyle.

Sam Mendes is a filmmaker who knows exactly what he wants, which is why he would want to work on this film. Revolutionary Road is probably his least interesting film, story wise. After-all, it's just about two people who try to cope with their lives. There is no motivational plot to it, but the thing about this film is that it doesn't need one. We are getting a glimpse into the lives of two people who had big dreams and realized that they had to sacrifice them in order to live their lives. It's sad, but it also rings true.

The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, as the married couple who constantly fight. Everyone called this film the "What If Jack and Rose Ended Up Together" movie. Yet it is so much more than that. They give powerful performances, which unfortunately were overlooked during the Oscar season. Another Titanic star, Kathy Bates, gives her support to the couple as the real estate agent who thinks the world of them. She has a son, who is mentally unstable and asks to bring him over for dinner one night. Michael Shannon plays the son and he steals both scenes he is in. For a guy who is deemed insane, he is the only one who speaks the truth.

I watched this flick because so many people told me how depressing it was. While it was depressing I didn't find it to be that bad. The most depressing aspect of the film is how relatable it is to real life. This story happens everywhere and that is the sad part.

The cinematography is great, the 1950's feel was spot on and really gave the film more of a cinematic sense of wonder to it. Roger Deakins seems to know exactly what is needed for every film he takes on. The look and feel of the film here is so simple, yet so beautiful at the same time.

Finally, I can see why people may not like this film. It's definitely an acquired taste. I was not in love with it by any means and for those involved it's not their best work. Instead it's a film to enjoy once. I wouldn't bother watching it again because the pace is long and I feel that I won't be as engaged a second time.

On a final note, why do guys from the 1950's only last about 15 seconds?

I saw an advance screening of Revolutionary Road in Beverly Hills, CA this evening (December 14th). A Q&A session followed the screening with Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates, Michael Shannon, Kathryn Hahn, and screenwriter Justin Haythe. Photos from the Q&A are attached to this report.

Revolutionary Road is a story that you won't be able to shake easily. The film will stick in your head and leave you to contemplate what has just happened on the screen before you. Richard Yates gives us the story of Frank and April Wheeler, the seemingly perfect suburbia couple. We soon find out their marriage is teetering on the edge of a collapse as they are overwhelmed by the fact that they have each made the wrong choices in their lives.

Once again Kate Winselt and Leonardo DiCaprio come together with great chemistry, pulling the best out of each other. This is a heavy film with emotionally complex characters, I'm not sure I could think of any two actors that could pull off the roles of Frank and April Wheeler like Leonardo and Kate did.

"Truth is usually in singular - Lies always come in plural." I'm not sure who said that, but it is a notion that sums up this film.

Michael Shannon shinned in his role as the clinically insane son of Kathy Bates character; John Givings. Bates and Shannon both deliver humorous scenes to this heavy storyline, although there are times when you see the sadness and desperation in their characters as well. Michael Shannon's character, John Givings, is the truth in this film. Although clinically insane, he can see through everyone's lies and does the unthinkable; he forces everyone face their own truth.

I guarantee you will not be singing "My Heart Will Go On" after seeing this film. But you won't be disappointed with this little film gem.

That 'Revolutionary Road' was directed by Sam Mendes (who directed the brilliant 'American Beauty' nine years earlier) and that it reunited two immensely talented actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet after 1997's 'Titanic' were reasons enough to see it.

'Revolutionary Road' may not be "revolutionary" and it is not perhaps a film that will be re-watched over and over by me. This said, there is so much to appreciate, there is no denying that it's incredibly well made and superbly acted. And to me and many others (though it is an understandably polarising film, the dark and unpleasant subject matter is not for everybody) it is a powerful and moving film, and one of the most realistic and truthful depictions of a struggling marriage on film.

Visually, 'Revolutionary Road' is wonderfully shot, bleak but also sumptuous, while the scenery and 50s production values are evocatively and handsomely rendered. Thomas Newman's music score is hauntingly hypnotic, achingly melancholic and at times ominous.

While at times stagy, the dialogue is insightful, making one really think about what it's saying (it has much to say and knows how to say it without preaching) and for many will wrench the gut and induce floods of tears. There is a little levity provided by Kathy Bates, that could have been ill-fitting but is pitched well. The story is deliberate, but the atmosphere is brilliantly evoked and there are many parts that have huge power and are emotionally devastating, especially in the latter parts.

Sam Mendes keeps things at an assured pace, keeps the atmosphere alive and doesn't undermine the chemistry between DiCaprio and Winslet in any way. DiCaprio and Winslet embody their roles, which are intentionally not the most likable, are very complex and very much compellingly real, and their chemistry is both tense and affecting. Winslet has the more complex one of the two and her performance is a heart-wrenching emotional roller-coaster, while DiCaprio gives an explosive turn especially in the fever pitch latter parts.

Michael Shannon proves himself to be a scene stealer as the brutally honest crazy nut, and Kathy Bates brings well-timed levity.

Overall, a powerful and moving film that is highly appreciated in many ways. 9/10 Bethany Cox

The Titanic lovers, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, get reunited for Revolutionary Road a tale of sterile life in the suburbs during the Eisenhower years. Not that this is anything new, the subject was done as comedy and as drama in such diverse films way back then as Rally Round The Flag Boys and Strangers When We Meet.

It's a nice story, but not one I could terribly worked up about. So Leonardo is working for some firm as a sales rep and it's a job he hates. Good for him, 90% of the American work force are in jobs that are just paychecks to support themselves and their families. Which Leo and Kate increased by two during the course of the film.

Seeing themselves in a rut, Kate lets fly the brilliant suggestion that he just quit and move to Paris. Not only that he should just 'find himself' and she'll work and support and raise the kids and him. Leo likes the idea, but then gets cold feet and it goes downhill from there.

Leo and Kate are fine, but the film just is not up to the standards set by Titanic. I sure cared a lot more about Jack and Rose than I did about either of the Wheelers. Nevertheless Revolutionary Road which is the name of the street the Wheelers live on in the film, got three Oscar nominations including one for Michael Shannon as the bipolar son of the Wheeler's neighbor Kathy Bates who sold them the house. Nowadays Shannon would be on his meds and leading a more productive life than he is here. Shannon lost for Best Supporting Actor to Heath Ledger for the Dark Knight.

Revolutionary Road is entertaining, but hardly groundbreaking.

Leonard DiCaprio and Kate Winslet star in "Revolutionary Road," a 2008 film directed by Sam Mendes. The film also features Kathy Bates and John Givings.

It's 1955. Frank and April Wheeler have been married seven years, live in the Connecticut suburb and have two children. Frank works for a company that his father worked for, and he hates his job. April is a stay-at-home mom who wanted to be an actress.

While it might look good on the outside, this isn't the life either one envisioned. But April has an idea. They have enough money saved so that they can move to Paris, a city Frank loves. She can get a job as a secretary, which pays very well over there, and Frank can stay at home and decide what he really wants to do with his life. It sounds possible but maybe not practical, though Frank ultimately agrees to it.

Frank can't seem to find the right moment to give his notice; and then April discovers that she is pregnant. What now? There are lots of layers in this emotionally resonant, magnificently acted film. It's very much a story of its time for several reasons. The first is that it's obvious that April suffers from very bad depression. Though post-war psychological problems were recognized, actual depression, especially in a woman, probably wasn't given much attention. It was the returning soldiers who had suffered trauma who had the psychiatric focus. If by some means she had been discovered to have clinical depression, the medicine was horrible.

The second thing is that it was 1955. The ideas of picking up and moving to Europe with your family and the woman as breadwinner were outrageous back then. Now, not so much.

The third reason is that April at least had an artist's mentality and an artist's way of looking at the world. In this world, we have the practical and the artist, as in the O'Neill play Beyond the Horizon, where one brother is a farmer and the other brother is a poet who dreams of going out to sea. The problem is, there's no way to kill those attributes, and if you try, you won't be happy. April shouldn't have been married, shouldn't have been living in the suburbs, and shouldn't have stayed home.

Frank is more practical, though he'd like to be different, would like to do something he loves, if only he knew what that was. April thought he was cosmopolitan, adventurous, and that together, they'd be special. The idea that they're not special is something she can't tolerate.

This is such a fascinating movie about life's disappointments, punctuated with some humor by Kathy Bates as Mrs. Givings, a loquacious woman, whose son (Michael Shannon) has been institutionalized. When he meets the Wheelers, he has an uncanny way of speaking exactly the truth no one wants to hear. Shannon does a fantastic job in these disturbing scenes.

A shattering movie. I like to be entertained in films. I feel like we all have so much to reality to face, why not be able to turn away from it - but a beautifully realized film like this about dysfunction - somehow, I don't mind.

Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio were the incentive of my going to see this film, and I could not be more convinced of their talent than I am after the two-hour brilliance.

This film is reality in its purest, yet magnificently artistic form – the anger that is portrayed repetitively and in various occasions reminded me of the wrath I myself occasionally experience, from the overture of an argument to its climax; the screaming, the furious need to verbally and physically harm, punch, kick, no matter how much affection is felt towards the recipient. Even during the scenes that are meant to be tranquil, there is anxiety and tension hidden in their smiles, a sort of counterfeit politeness that should never be present in a happy relationship.

It is all a depiction of two genuine lives that have the potential of existing in complete harmony, yet cannot because of the stereotypical environment and situation they find themselves in. They both crave change, an alteration in their monotonous state of being, but because of the lengthy period of time that they have spent in such a circumstance, their mentality is differently modified. April (Kate Winslet) finds unreserved determination to leave to Paris and although her character seems at times erratic, we gradually come to understand that she is in fact the stronger personality of the two; she truly finds change favorable, whereas Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) seems to find the idea of change more flattering than change itself.

Each choice a person makes can change a life, and that life is not always theirs. This film shows us just how wrong something right can be, as well as how right something wrong can be.

One of the reasons I keep devouring stories in general, and films in particular is that I firmly believe that the authors always have something to say, something worth being heard. A powerful message, if you may, about their view of life. A revelation to present the audience with, so we can leave the room with that "wow, life is just like that" feeling.

This message may be positive or negative, but it should always be believable within the reality of the film. I confess I rather prefer a positive one. Or, if negative, at least with a tiny bit of hope hidden somewhere, I rather not leave the room feeling miserable. But I understand some audiences may enjoy this and, in any case, it doesn't matter: it's your message, isn't it?

According to Justin Haythe (writer) and Sam Mendes (director), life is just too painful to be lived, too full of suffering and sorrow as to find the time to enjoy, create or love. We are hit with a most melodramatic picture of everyday events in a script that fails to create actual conflicts and believable drama. In such a farce, the luxury of the intense performances given by Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio are outrageously wasted.

Fans of the actors will undoubtedly enjoy it, of course, and such an effort certainly deserves recognition. But the story itself contributes nothing, neither to the film history wealth, nor to the poor audience's expectations, that are likely to feel rather down after the show, or even mad at the whole world for no apparent reason, just like the protagonist couple.

First, for the chemistry between Winslet and DiCaprio, Second - for the amazing performances of Kathy Bates and Michael Shannon. Not the last for the accuracy of recreated atmosphere. A splendid film because it seems escape out of script. And because it has the potential to be a film about its public. Each of us has dreams and regrets and desire of beginning. Each of us is confronted with decisions, responsabilities, duties. And the answer is not alwazs the best. So, a magnificent film about people, vulnerabilities, crisis and the cold solution.

My grandparents still consider the 1950's to be the golden age of pure, unblemished Americanism. A time when teenagers were respectful, parents were bright, smiling examples of friendly authority, sex was post-marital and marriage was a time of apple pies and cheerful strolls down the charming neighborhood lane. I don't know at the moment if my grandparents have seen Revolutionary Road, but rarely do movies come along when the opinions of our elders would almost surely prove to be enormously valuable and insightful.

The movie is based on the novel by Richard Yates, which attacked the very normality and pleasant conformity of the 1950's that forms the basis of so much of the modern nostalgia about it today. There has been a lot of expectation about the movie that would bring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet together again for the first time in more than a decade, but the romance that they share in Revolutionary Road could not possibly be more different from the one they developed on the Titanic.

They are Frank and April Wheeler, an outwardly charming husband and wife who live in a beautiful dream house on Revolutionary Road. They radiate an atmosphere of perfection and happiness and are loved by the neighbors. We meet them just after they've made what they promised each other was only a temporary move from Manhattan to the sprawling suburbs. The movie begins with April in an unsuccessful play, and we learn very quickly about their relationship in the car on the way home as Frank thoughtfully assures her that it's okay that she didn't become an actress, it's not her fault that the play was lousy, and then in the fight that ensues, Frank tells her that she acts "sick" when she gets mad like this.

It seems that the most important thing that Frank and April embody about the traditional 1950s couple was the routine sacrificing of dreams upon the altar of conformity and fulfilling expectations. April dreams of a romantic life in Paris, and Frank has artistic ambitions as well. But he is stuck in a job that he hates despite a good salary, they have two kids already and a third accidentally on the way, and adultery's going on left and right.

April suggests that they drop everything and move to Paris where, with money that she could make working combined with whatever they could get for the house, they could live comfortably until he could get on his feet artistically and they could both live the lives they have always dreamed of. They are doing what is expected of them already, but they're both deeply unhappy and they see no improvement ahead.

It is one of the movie's more successful tragic moments in the way that everyone Frank and April know react to the news that they are moving. Responses range from friendly disbelief to outward remarks of irresponsibility and suggestions that such a move would be "irresponsible." It's hard to watch Frank and April let go of their dreams when it was right in their grasp.

It's not unrealistic, ladies and gentlemen. It's uncommon and unexpected, but unrealistic? Irresponsible? I should hope not! It's commonly believed to be irresponsible and unrealistic, but it's not, trust me. I'm doing it myself. I left a job in Los Angeles two years ago that paid well but that I didn't like, and I've been living in China (decidedly less romantic than Paris, I admit) ever since. I now have a job that pays less than I made in LA, but my lifestyle is much more comfortable and I work 10 hours a week, which leaves me time to pursue my artistic endeavors. See how that works?

Granted, I don't have any kids, but I also didn't have a house to sell to put together some money to support myself while I found work. "I just think people are better off doing some kind of work that they actually like," Frank complains. I tend to agree.

But ultimately life gets in the way, as they say. A gossipy real estate agent, played perfectly by Kathy Bates, makes friends with April and nervously asks if she might bring over her son John, who has been in a mental institution and who she thinks might benefit from meeting a happy couple like April and Frank. April agrees, but when John comes over, it seems that his only mental problem is an inability to adhere to accepted models of conformity, which manifests itself mostly in the form of cutting through other peoples' facades like warm butter and laying bare the sad, bitter reality of their lives. When he does this with April and Frank, the results are not pretty, but they are some of the best movie moments of 2008.

Kate and Leo both approach perfection in their performances. Both of them have appeared in other brilliant films in 2008 (Kate in The Reader and Leo in Body of Lies), but in Revolutionary Road their performances reach such a level of pitch and depth that, when combined, they reverberate against each other and turn into something entirely different. If there were an Oscar for the best combination of two performances, there would be no need for any other nominees.

Revolutionary Road is not the most uplifting film of the year (although it's also not nearly as depressing as, say, Rachel Getting Married), but it is definitely among the most important. It's not so much that the movie attacks conformity, but that it attacks that little voice inside us that prevents us from doing what we really want in life because it goes against the accepted norm. Watching the movie kind of takes a bite out of you, but it takes a bite of that part of you that gets in the way of your dreams.

In life, we either have the things that we want or the reasons why we do not have them. Based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Richard Yates, Sam Mendes' Revolutionary Road tackles the issue of what it would take to go beyond the reasons and create a life of authenticity. The film reunites the popular stars of Titanic, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, as a suburban couple, Frank and April Wheeler, who see themselves as special but whose mediocre lives do not reflect their ideals. Set in suburban Connecticut in the 1950s, the main protagonists mirror the growing intellectual malaise and search for meaning that lay beneath the outward superficiality of the "affluent society", an undercurrent that would give birth to the counterculture and the more open social environment of the 1960s.

As they move into their new house on Revolutionary Road with their two small children, Michael (Ty Simpkins) and Jennifer (Ryan Simpkins), Frank (DiCaprio) and Alice (Winslet) are determined not to be trapped by their surroundings but their self-deception and inertia ensures that they will get what they resist. They devise schemes to escape that seem plausible on the surface, but fail to confront the fact that they are comfortable in being the people that they used to mock. Ultimately, the gap between their aspirations and their ability to achieve them leads to growing frustration and an inevitable breakdown in their relationship that has sad consequences.

The film opens when Frank and Alice spot each other at a party and the closeness of their dancing indicates a strong chemistry between them. Flashing forward seven years, however, the promise of the opening scene has deteriorated to bickering conflict. Alice, who aspires to be an actress, is disappointed with her performance in the local theater and, on the drive home, becomes furious with Frank who berates her acting ability. Frank is now a thirty-year-old salesman for a business machines corporation in Manhattan, the same company his father worked for, and professes to hate his job.

Recognizing their untenable situation, Alice proposes that they sell their house and move to Paris where she can work in the NATO secretarial pool and Frank can "find himself" and begin to live the life he has dreamed of. Initially reluctant, Frank slowly warms to the idea, seeing it as a way to obtain a release from the suburban mentality personified by Frank's co-workers and neighbors Shep (David Harbour) and Milly Campbell (Kathryn Hahn) who view their proposed move as radical and silly. When Frank is praised at a job for a report he has written and offered a promotion and higher salary by Bart Pollack (Jay O. Sanders), however, doubts begin to surface about the Paris decision.

Soon the couple's arguments take on a more vicious tone, their confidence undermined by visits to their home by their realtor Helen Givings (Kathy Bates), her husband Howard (Richard Easton), and their mentally disturbed son John (Michael Shannon). Free from social restraints, John unleashes a searing indictment of Frank and Alice's values and his verbal thrusts are the film's power point. As a final straw, Alice reveals that she is pregnant and ideas about Paris must be re-evaluated. Fine performances by Winslet and DiCaprio support a solid, workmanlike effort by Mendes, but the film lacks the poetry that would raise it to another level and the dialogue is often self-conscious and overly theatrical. What could have been a work of power and beauty becomes instead a missed opportunity and, in Mendes' hand, Revolutionary Road is a dead end street.

Revolutionary Road is a great movie with a well developed storyline and a terrific cast.It is certainly a well acted movie,though it is certainly not their finest performances,Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet both shine in the lead roles,and their acting has certainly improved over the eleven year gap of Titanic,both movies contain great chemistry between DiCaprio and Winslet,but this time around it felt more real and sincere.I felt like there were certainly several things missing than could have made this movie better,one thing is that it certainly would have benefited with making us feel for these characters more,I found them quite unlikable for the most part,and at times that certainly made it difficult for me to care about the decisions they make or the things that happen to them.I also think it needed more scenes containing intense dialogue between the Wheeler's,these parts were the highlight of the movie as Winslet and DiCaprio both deliver their dialogue beautifully.Its certainly not outstanding and could have benefited more from its two leads,but Revolutionary Road is still a very enjoyable film that I would recommend to anyone looking for a good drama or romantic film.

A seemingly successful couple in 1950s Connecticut struggle to fight off the boredom and resentment their marriage is facing.

Best Performance: Kate Winslet

A show-stopping Leonardo DiCaprio becomes Frank Wheeler, with remarkable power and an insight we only get from the greatest kind of actors. Allowing the audience to become fully immersed in his psyche, letting us feel everything with him. Living his pain, resentment, and the smörgåsbord of emotions in between. It is a highly accomplished piece of acting from the lead actor that I cannot imagine being ignored come this award season. Frank is a flawed man that many people will be able to see aspects of themselves in. Not being satisfied with marriage, family, work. Feeling we are meant or destined for something greater, yet paradoxically feeling the doubt and insecurity in ourselves to really go after it. He's depressed, has a past he can't seem to let go of, he's arrogant, he's a liar, he's manipulative and in many ways immature. Yet we know him. He's our father growing up, he's a brother, friend or possibly even you. He makes mistakes and is almost embarrassingly human. What I found ultimately tragic about him was not the way in which he lied to others but the way in which he lied to himself. Leo DiCaprio uses his expressive face to brilliant effect as Frank. He was terrific in "Aviator" , "Blood Diamond", "This Boy's Life" and others and has rightfully earned his place as one of the finest actors of his generation. Having said that, this is a whole new layer to DiCaprio that none of us have seen before. He brings a new, mature type of authentic subtlety to his craft. He doesn't resort to any big physical transformation. It's all internal. This is a new height for him, and easily the greatest acting of his career. A performance of great emotional intensity and depth that I can say without hesitation, will be remembered for generations to come.

Kate Winslet plays April Wheeler with a sharp fervor. She is angry, depressed and intensely believes she and Frank are destined for something greater than a life of conformity in the burbs. She is a tragic character in that she is basically a closed book, she shuns the love that people try to give her, she is a free spirit and quite the handful. She comes up with an idea to break free of the conformity she shares with her husband in an attempt to revive their marriage and at first it seems to work - the passion for life and each other reignited. But after an unexpected event and other factors, will the dream plan go through?

The chemistry between Winslet and DiCaprio in "Revolutionary Road" reminded me in many ways of the chemistry between Liz Taylor and Richard Burton in the 1966 film "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?". They create an intensity in their arguments that is electric and palpable. You cannot take your eyes off them, they glue you to the screen and stick it to each other as sharply as the couple from "Virginia Woolf" were able to. Frank and April's story is grounded in a greater, more painful reality, however. DiCaprio's raging sobs are chilling.

The film is very dark. And the honesty practically guts you in some cases, so I don't think everyone will love it. Watching it was emotionally draining. Sam Mendes certainly did his job well here. It's his greatest film since "American Beauty".

The art of storytelling, whether in a play, a novel or a film is to create characters who become real. And once you identify with the characters, their lives become the vehicle for the tone and message of the work. Without such realism, such verisimilitude, there is nothing but parody, and the manipulation of stock figures.

I am a great fan of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, so I was looking forward to seeing them in a serious exploration of an era that I lived through as a young man. This work was stunningly without substance. Oh there were emotions, but the characters were not believable, and worse there was no attempt to make it so. The clue is the two children, throw away place holders, so they never even became people. Yet children are a part of any family, and we can't know the family without knowing the joys and trials of these most vulnerable members.

A good test that I use of the quality of any film is whether there are throwaway characters, or if every person seems to have walked in from their own full life. If they only utter a single line, you can still tell. The mental patient visitor was some kind of a joke I imagine. Not like anyone with schizophrenia that I ever met, and I met a few.

And it's not trivial that Frank could never describe exactly what he did for a living. The writers never bothered to create an occupation that would have fit the plot. So he was just a man in a cubicle. A nobody, with no interest in his work, but who was made a key member of a team to develop the most complex product of the era, who had no idea what it did, or how it worked.

Some may consider this transcending details to provide a cultural everyman. But everyman is no man at all.

This wasn't a dysfunctional marriage, as that implies that there is first a marriage. The film "The Squid and the Whale" was about a dysfunctional marriage, where the couple were at each others throats Yet both of them and their children were real unique struggling humans trapped in their history and that of their circle. That was a true work of art, while this was an exercise in a drama class.

For those who think this is some accurate depiction of America in the 1950s, believe me it isn't. If you want to see a film about a dysfunctional couple of the era, try "Come back little Sheba" or "Death of a Salesman." Each of these films created actual characters, and we were drawn into their lives as we learned about the era.

This film was about 2008, and how when two super stars are signed for a film deal there is no need to throw away money on writers who flesh out their characters, and provide plausible circumstances of their lives.

I just learned that the director of this film was the same man who directed, "American Beauty," one of my all time favorites.

Go figure!

Revolutionary Road is not a very joyful film, or is it easy to watch. Instead of being simply entertaining, it achieves what not many films these days do. It wants to be a learning lesson.

This film is superbly crafted, in both the writing and the amazing direction by Sam Mendes. After his great film 'American Beauty', he comes back with strong will to do this project. His direction is the best of the year for sure. It feels so professional, so alive. The writing, both of the characters, Frank and April Wheeler, I feel they are so open and 3-dimensional characters, but the screenplay wants to let us inside their lives, and it does so with great passion. Leonardo Dicaprio plays Frank with such intensity, with such force. Dicaprio gives his best performance here without a doubt, since I don't really think he has ever done something like this before. Then there is Kate Winslet. My favorite actress, and certainly one of the most talented out there. Winslet has surprised me before in a lot of movies, but here, she surprises me in a whole other way. Her silent, unlikeable, and sometimes human and cold portrayal of April Wheeler is one of the best performances of the decade. She gives the best female performance of the year, and I truly hope she finally wins the Oscar she deserves.

The film itself is so beautiful, so alive, yet at the same time, so dark to what the film is about. The cinematography is amazing, as well as the costumes and the whole set designs. The music, the original score, was so unsettling, perfectly balanced to what each scene brought.

Revolutionary Road is not a film for everyone. I can definitely see some critics will hate it, but it should certainly be respected, for its ambition, for the things it accomplishes and every thing it portrays. I think this is Mendes' masterpiece. I have not seen a better made film this year.