Mendes triumphs - A worthy reunion for Kate and Leo

Rating: 8/10 (7 December 2009)

Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio play April and Frank Wheeler who reunite on screen for the first time in eleven years since the acclaimed blockbuster 'Titanic'. However this time their doom is not a famed ocean liner's decent into the Atlantic but of a marriage descending into the stultifying stillness of suburban life in the 50's. The character are dreamers if you might who don't see their house on Revolutionary Road in Conneticut as a sanctuary but as a prison in which there is no escape. Sam Mendes was the perfect choice as director as the film deals with similar themes to his Oscar winning film 'American Beauty.' His direction is perfect as the audience is never allowed to step back and examine the damage which fate has brought upon the two characters. Instead the camera is constantly on the two leads faces not missing a single reaction that is crucial to the understanding of the motivations of these strange but hauntingly normal characters. There is a possibility that audiences maybe put off by the two characters because they don't play for sympathy, they are too good as actors to do this and their honest performances reflect that because if the actors were to play for sympathy it would be missing the point. Us as an audience live in a day now where free-thinking is widely accepted and acknowledge. Not stifled at first glance and if the actors played for empathy then we would be taken out of their predicament. We as an audience must accept that in another time these two character could have been happy but sadly their fate is doomed in this adaptation of Richard Yates novel - perhaps one of the finest pieces of American literature.