movies - revolutionary road

this is for my friends and family. yes, all three of you who read my blog. with less than two weeks until the academy awards, i thought i would write little reviews of some of the major films as i have seen most all of them this year. as these two weeks wind down, i will also write a piece contemplating why steven soderbergh's 'che,' was all but ignored in this country after benicio del toro won the cannes film festival's "best actor," award equivalent.

revolutionary road

couples who impale their dreams on the altar of convention are nothing new. even director sam mendes has tread this subject matter previously in his debut movie american beauty. still, it is a fascinating topic and while revolutionary road is a dialogue driven film, it still commands your full attention from start to finish.

mendes' movie is based on a 1961 novel of the same name by richard yates and it explores themes that should be especially significant and familiar to american audiences. why do americans go into a dull office every day to toil at jobs they find meaningless? why do we seem to care more about appearances than reality? why are we afraid and why don't we recognize fear as the very worst condition to live in? why don't we identify hypocrisy as an outward sign of some other unknown ill? these are the kinds of questions this movie stirs within the viewer and if you like contemplating heavy subjects of this ilk, i guess you will like revolutionary road.

for their parts, leonardo dicaprio and kate winslet give great performances absolutely capturing the essences of their characters, april and frank. they are an american couple with two children who are living the americana, suburban dream of the '50s. frank goes to the office every day but seems to do almost nothing for a business machines company. april teeters on the brink of going stir crazy daily in their seemingly luxurious and charming new home on a hillside in a connecticut suburb.

these two characters are both complex and likeable. frank loves his wife and wants to do the right thing. april loves her children and her husband but like the characters of a kate mansfield or joan didion story, she remains rooted in reality and recognizes her situation as desperate, which if you are honest with yourself in viewing the film, you will too.

on frank's 30th birthday april hatches a plan that involves the family completely uprooting and moving to paris. (yeah, france.) she explains how she can get a job to support the family which will afford frank the opportunity to "find himself." frank warms to the idea and plans follow. however, one day as frank mocks his ridiculous job with some flowery wording about one of their machines, he is approached with an offer for advancement, (in a moment reminiscent of office space.) from this point on frank's weakness seems to take over. his courage falters and eventually he tells april he will not move the family to france, not now anyway.

april reacts with disbelief. she is angry not only at frank for his perceived weakness but also at the society she lives in for her station in it. april decides that she will exercise whatever power she has which is to say, the power over her own body. april's reaction seems on the surface to be a bit dramatic and perhaps crazy but in actuality and in the broader picture, it can be seen as the only sane reaction. april refuses to compromise. she decides that if she and frank cannot take charge of their lives as a couple then she will damned sure take charge of her life as an individual.
the movie employs a mother and son as clever devices to clearly delineate the polar opposite choices frank and april are faced with. kathy bates plays their realtor who sees the world in black and white and lives for appearances. she represents how frank and april's life could be in the future. if they stay put they can become just like her, living in this suburb, knowing everyone's business, constantly making small talk, denying any real self that may exist at the hearts of their beings. or, they can heed the prescient mumblings of bates' son who is just released from a mental institution and who says whatever comes into his mind and thereby exposes the hypocrisy of frank and april's decisions and behaviors.

while it is hardly new territory, the subject matter explored in revolutionary road is fertile ground for the art of our day, movies, to address as a means of moving us and making us think about our own brief lives on this planet. and isn't that what art is all about?