Revolutionary Road (Rhoades)

“Revolutionary Road” Leads To Unhappy Ever After

Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

What if the Titanic had made it to port? What if Jack and Rose had gotten married? Would they have lived happy ever after?

In “Revolutionary Road” – the new drama that opened Friday at the Tropic Cinema – Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are reunited, this time around as a married couple.

Although it’s a different time and different place, their love story hits the shoals. Here we find a married couple trapped in a suburban life that they never wanted. Kate gives us a woman who dreamed of bright lights and Paris, not rug rats and a Stepford wife existence. And Leo shows us a man whose hesitation forces him into a job that he hates and a commuter grind that saps his very soul.

So why would a moviegoer want to play fly-on-the-wall to family fights and bitter accusations (when you could simply stay at home and get that)?

The answer: Kate Winslet.

Never one of my favorite actresses, in “Revolution Road” she defies me to not recognize her talent. Her performance is awesome. Every nuance, every twitch of her face, every angry word communicates a woman who has lost her center, trapped in a life she never wanted, at a loss with her very self.

Wow!

She may be up for the golden statuette with her role in “The Reader” (her 6th nomination to date), but this performance alone should seal her reputation as one of today’s finest actresses.
In addition to Winslet, you’ll appreciate the sure-handed direction of Sam Mendes (“American Beauty”). And you’ll certainly want to catch Michael Shannon’s Oscar-nominated performance.
Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” (1966) gave us the Battling Burtons, making us squirm as we painfully witnessed the deterioration of a relationship.

Now, with “Revolutionary Road,” we have the same uncomfortable experience while watching the collapse of a marriage, the tragic fate that befalls this storybook couple. Affairs, abortions, a loveless marriage, unfulfilled dreams.

No, it’s not a happy-ever-after story.

srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]