Dir. Sam Mendes, US/UK, 2008, 119 mins
Cast: Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio
Review by Carol Allen
At first sight this appears to be well-trodden territory. There are superficial analogies with Mendes' American Beauty , even using the same composer (Thomas Newman) and a similar repetitive theme. There are also certain similarities for Winslet with her role as the frustrated housewife in Little Children and the film also rings all sorts of other reminder bells with for example television's Mad Men . But as Richard Yates wrote the novel on which this is based in 1961, it is these others who are presumably echoing him. And the story's theme, of how our youthful image of who we think we are and the original and exciting lives we are destined to live, can so easily be crushed and lost when “we buy into the delusion of settling down when we have children”, as one character puts it, has a universality and validity entirely of its own.
When April (Winslet) and Frank (DiCaprio) meet and fall in love they are determined that their life will be different, based on higher ideals than the norm. But with her first pregnancy and their move to the house in the suburbs on the ironically misnamed Revolutionary Road, the iron jaws of the normality trap start to close. He becomes a man tied down to a dreary job by his family responsibilities, she becomes a homemaker in a stifling golden cage. And when April's scheme for them to fulfil their dream of moving to Paris and living the lives they once planned is destroyed, there appears to be no escape.
The story is set in the 50s and its picture of America in that period rings true both visually and in its attitudes. The smug prettiness of their suburban home is striking, as is the amount of consumer trappings in terms of kitchen gadgets, a stuffed linen cupboard and bland new furniture that was considered necessary even that far back for an acceptable American family home. In some ways they are living in a television commercial of the period in terms of what couples were supposed to aspire to and accept. Although it's April's first pregnancy which first takes them into the trap, we see very little of the children. The focus is on the couple throughout. Frank and April engage our empathy from their first meeting as two young free spirits, then cutting immediately to them some years later having a blistering row, which tells us immediately what the film is about. The story is told through some very powerful visual imagery, as in a sequence of Frank commuting to the city in a crowd of almost identical young husbands in similar suits and hats and later a blood stain marring the perfection of the impeccable beige carpet and April's impeccable beige outfit. Frank's affair with one of the typists from the office pool also rings very true to the period. The renewed life and energy in Frank and April's relationship, when the Paris project is mooted, lifts one's spirits and there is then a true sense of tragedy, particularly for April, when events conspire against it and the jaws of the trap snap shut again.
Both DiCaprio and Winslet give very powerful performances. For him in particular it's one of the best he's ever given, marking a significant progression in his work as an actor. There is good support from Kathy Bates as their neighbour Helen Givings and particularly Michael Shannon as her unstable adult son, who is a victim of electric shock treatment. The resolution of Frank and April's story is very moving and the film's final shot of the elderly Mr Givings turning off his hearing aid as his wife is banging on about some trivia, which could well in different circumstances have been the closing chapter of Frank and April's story, is another beautifully chosen image, which in this case sums up the film.
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