A haunting spectre of the American dream...

Rating: 9/10 (3 February 2009)

Revolutionary Road (2008)
Top 5 - 2008
Sam Mendes revisits American suburbia after his Oscar laden masterpiece 'American Beauty' which beautifully examined the painful imperfections of suburban life of a middle aged couple in the late 1990s. This time Mendes takes us almost half a century back in 1950s America to examine the life of April and Frank Wheeler who move to a beautiful suburb away from the buzzing city. This is Revolutionary Road, an adaptation of Richard Yates' 1961 novel of the same name.
With elegant camera-work by Mendes, powerful acting from Di Caprio and Winslet (and a host of other solid performances), sharp editing and cinematography, we get a haunting look at the standard premise of the post WWII American Dream. Except this time the dream goes all wrong.
April and Frank Wheeler have a very nice house in a comfortable suburb in middle class America. Frank has a stable income, April is a stay at home mother to their two children. All good? No. The film explores how the life of this couple is empty inside, with no hope - it is an 'elegantly devastating' motion picture as one reviewer put it, Mendes really masters the art of beautiful film-making.
Th story involves a number of character that expand the films dimensions and evolve with the storyline. This is an excellent film and in my opinion one of the top 5 of the year and should have been nominated for Best Picture and Director at this year's Oscars.
9/10