???You know the institution of marriage is in trouble when even Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet can't get along.
???The two, forever engraved in cinema history as the star-crossed lovers in Titanic, share the screen yet again in Revolutionary Road. Only this time, their relationship is sinking.
???Revolutionary Road, based on the 1960 novel by Richard Yates, takes place in a tranquil suburban neighborhood in the 1950s. Frank Wheeler (DiCaprio, Body of Lies) is a typical workingman with a darling wife, April (Winslet, The Reader), two children, and a plush suburban house.
???Frank and April, however, have a rather colorful history. Frank is a World War II veteran and Columbia graduate who worked a number of odd jobs in New York before settling down. April is an aspiring actress who met Frank at a party and chose to be a housewife instead of a Broadway star.
???The two consider themselves more enlightened than their banal surroundings, so much so that April proposes that they move to Paris, where people are "alive."
???There begins a careful dissection of the American Dream.
???Frank and April seem to have it all. Why would they want to give it all up to go to France? April convinces Frank that he will be able to "find himself" by studying and traveling while she supports them both.
???It's a radical idea - especially for the 1950s, when Eisenhower was president and the Women's Rights Movement hadn't even begun.
???The film wrestles with the ideals of the American Dream head-on. The 1950s era is known for its conformity; however, as the film clearly shows, there was an underbelly of resentment felt by a lot of people, and Frank and April represent the angst that came from that underbelly.
???More importantly, the strain that the angst put on their marriage is staggering. Half the film is devoted to showing Frank and April arguing. They constantly go at it, tearing each other's opinions and egos inside out. One issue leads to another, until it cumulates to a shocking procedure that will make the audience shudder queasily.
???DiCaprio and Winslet prove in this movie why they are such big stars.
???They take a gloomy subject matter and expound it by any means available. The audience can clearly see the passion, both the good and bad, which the couple shares. Of course, it's way too easy to judge a performance based on how angry an actor can get.
???The truly talented are able to express how subtle an actor can be. The way DiCaprio waters his eyes, how Winslet squeezes an orange the morning after a nasty fight, shows true artistry.
???Director Sam Mendes (Jarhead) goes into familiar territory in Revolutionary Road. After all, the film is very similar to his Academy Award-winning film American Beauty, in which a couple struggles to cope with complacency and sexuality. He does a very good job in depicting the times without overdoing it. He gets the most out of his cast and the script. Mendes takes an overall fierce approach to an otherwise melodramatic subject material.
???Revolutionary Road is an examination of the things that define societies: marriage, prosperity, etc. It makes the point that a successful life if full of hardship and anxieties.
Photo: Breadchastick / Wikimedia Commons
