Start this Revolution Without Me **1/2

Rating: 6/10 (28 December 2009)

Despite the incredibly fine acting by Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, this picture is nothing more than "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? of this century.
Frank and April are anything but love-birds. They're just great at tormenting each other as we see in two major screaming scenes.
The name April to me represents spring and the coming of flowers. April Wheeler as depicted by Kate Winslet is anything but that. She is a frustrated woman who thinks that by moving to Paris with Frank (DiCaprio) and their two children, they can start life anew. She defies the conventional times of the 1950s by saying that she will work in Paris while Frank gets the time to find himself. He loathes his job.
Complications derail their plan when Frank is offered a promotion and April becomes pregnant.
Something is terribly wrong when an emotionally disturbed man, the son of real estate person Kathy Bates, has the situation terribly correct. Is this a one flew over the cuckoo's nest syndrome? Bates looks like a typical elementary school principal of that period. She pretends to be friendly but inwardly harbors resentment towards the Wheelers.
The film is basically devoid of the true meaning of life. In fact, it seems to attack that very idea.
The fact remains that April Wheeler wouldn't attain happiness if she were in Paris, Shangri La or on the beach in Honolulu.
Remember when Bogie said to Bergman in Casablanca, "We always had Paris?" That great city is not the answer here.