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First, I have to admit that it is one of the most disturbing films I've seen. I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. The first argument they have in the film, I see things at first from April's view. She is pissed over her performance in a local play, and she doesn't want to talk with her husband about it. Seems reasonable enough and I know I'm the same way....I need to decompress after a bad experience. But it doesn't take much for her to go for the juglar, does it? She gets really rude very quickly.
So I'm feeling bad for Frank, but not for long when we see him seduce a woman from his workplace, get her drunk and then have sex with her. Is Frank morally weak? Was this revenge for the previous argument or just giving in to temptation? We don't really know because it's not investigated.
As the film goes on, April decides that for the two of them to have an exceptional life, they have to leave everything behind and move to Paris. April chooses Paris based on Franks stories about it, having spent time there during the war. She wants to go to work and support Frank while it's Frank who takes his time to decide what he really wants to do with the rest of his life and then pursue it.
For me, this seemed like for all of April's talk of freedom and bravado, what she's really choosing to do is live vicariously through Frank's exploits. When we see her bomb at the local play and now choosing Frank as her liberator....I couldn't help but think that Frank was getting set up to fill a role no man could or should fill for another person.
She gets pregnant and the plan is junked. At the same time, Frank gets a substantial promotion at work.
Then the shit really hits the fan. April despises Frank, sees her children as mistakes, etc. She's not just unhappy, she's dangerous. When she pulls the object wrapped in a cloth from a bedroom drawer, I thought for sure it would be a gun and she would blow her brains out. For all intent and purpose, it was.
The film is not perfect, but I think the way the film ends is one of the best I've seen in recent production. We find the realtor who sold the Wheelers their home speaking to her husband. As her speaking continues, we see the the old husband who so dutifully supports his wife and insane son slowly turn the sound down on his hearing aid until blessed silence is achieved. The look on the old husbands face and the increasing silence provided a finality to the tragedy not unlike real doom.
Tragic doesn't begin to describe the film. It's not a "date movie" by any means and if you and your spouse/partner have been arguing, don't go to see this film. Just as Eddie Murphy's "Raw" and "Carnal Knowledge" were not date movies, "Revolutionary Road" is 10 times more bitter. The performances were outstanding by Winslet and DeCaprio, cementing them as two of the finer actors of their generation.
Follow Ups:
All about feelings? YUCK.
It's like my Dad used to say, tere's nothing wrong with Marriage, it's just the jackasses that get involved with it.
In a nutshell, the couple in question have a pretty damned nice life in a Conneticut suburb. It's not until you and ultimately they find out one is a habitual adulterer and the other a n'er do well narccicist that the real pain starts. The way the wife dies is an indictment on abortion laws in the USA during that time, but I'm not sure younger Americans who live in a country with legalized abortion for the last how many years can really relate to this indictment. On that point, the movie seems somewhat dated. Other than that.....as I said, very solid performances from DeCaprio and Winslet. Winslet in particular is turning into an exceptional actress......kind of like Streep was at the same age.
an habitual adulterer, at least that is not what is shown--- and it is not what he says to his wife.
I agree about Winslet and Streep though Kate seems to have a more effortless art. Streep always gives the appearance of a performance.
He admits to having cheated 3 times. We see him cheat twice, so the third happened off screen. Also, he leaves the girls apartment like the cat that swallowed the canary....so he seemed like a natural considering how comfortable he was.
I think Streep seems remarkably relaxed and natural. Also, she's done quite a few accents, which may not help suspend disbelief. Also, when she was younger than she is today, I thought she was sexy as hell.
But I would have to disagree about the drawer scene.
Hadn't the film already gone completely silent?
Oh, I see how you could have that expectation, but I "knew" what she was doing.
That was the moment all the air was sucked out of the cinema.
The description of how hard it is sometimes to find solutions to major mistakes in life (and I am not sure any one of these is IT, although my feelings are that it has the emptiness of post-WW2 suburban life at its core - this my contradict any or all of what I have posted before) plus the pre-echo of the women's movement and the blandness of the stay at home wife's life, enjoyable only for short periods and not made perfect by children, is not just one of these 2 people's lives but of the whole of western society.
Hey, I could have posted that at Water Cooler and been called unAmerican!!!
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