Leo and Kate riding the boat again

Rating: 7/10 (4 April 2009)

One decade after American Beauty Sam Mendes directs another strong melodrama located in the American suburbs, going back in time to the mid of the 50s at the time the powerful suburban myth and way of life was born. Mendes is cruelly X-raying the feelings and the conflicts of the generation that exited victorious from the war, enjoyed the post-war prosperity and fathered the baby bloom, a generation that made it materially but seemed to fail emotionally and culturally, falling into conventionalism and emptiness which only the late 60s flower generation will wipe away.
As principal actors Mendes brings back together Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, the royal couple made famous by Titanic. This film seems to a certain extent a negation of the big love story in Cameron's blockbuster, and Leo and Kate's act make their relation in the film dramatic, credible and even memorable in its best moments. Actually the whole cast is wonderfully chosen and another performance to remember belongs to Michael Shannon who is playing the hospitalized son of the neighbors who under the cover of his mental problems plays the role of the Shakespearean fool, telling the truth in face of his guests.
Great acting and some memorable cinema scenes like the starting train ride and parade of hats from the suburbs to the city at the beginning cannot yet make from an interesting film a great one. The principal problem of 'Revolutionary Road' seemed to me to be the theatrical setting of many of the dialogs in the film. The evolution of the relationship between the two heroes, the emptiness of their lives, and the failure to fill them with content are being told in scenes that may looks better on a Broadway stage but less on a cinema screen. It's really a shame, as Mendes seems to be a creator really capable of strong visual impact. However, the two talents of Sam Mendes visual expressed and directing his actors cannot get together to make of 'Revolutionary Road' the great film it could be.