Movie Review: Revolutionary Road

Earlier this year I went to see Revolutionary Road (2009), starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. It is based on the novel, with the same title, by Richard Yates. The novel starts like this:

It is a suburban town populated with people with good intentions. But as we all know, the road to hell was paved with the acts of this kind of folks. Among those good acts is a play. It was supposed to be something simple, nice and sweet. A group of amateur actors join to produce a play called “The Petrified Forest”. But everything goes terrible wrong. Actually, embarrassingly wrong.

A week later someone asked me if I saw the movie. No, I said. I don’t think so. Then she started to describe the movie to me and suddenly the full weight of that film came crashing back. I found Revolutionary Road so disturbing, that I literally suppressed seeing it.

Revolutionary Road is one of those films: One of my favourite movies that I never want to see again (like Dancer in the Dark). It is distressing; too close for comfort; a bitterly honest portrayal of life. The movie practically opens with a couple arguing, and continues on like this for most of the flick. The issues are real – the type of issues many marriages are confronted with. The types of authentic issues that causes a play, a marriage, or a life, to go terrible wrong. Actually, embarrassingly wrong.

It is a great movie, and shares a bit with The Secret Lives of Dentists (2002). Revolutionary Road depicts probably some of the best acting you will see this year (Kate Winslet deserves her Golden Globe); however, unless you have emotional energy to spare, don’t watch it. If you do have the heart for it, it is a splendid film.



The director is Sam Mendes, who also directed Jarhead (2005) and American Beauty (1999), did a splendid job.