Mannered dress up tale of a crumbling marriage didn't work for me

Rating: 5/10 (28 December 2008)

Sam Mendes is back in crumbling family territory with this adaptation of a Richard Yates novel about the implosion of a family in early 1960's American suburbia. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet play the Wheelers. We see how they meet at a party and then we flash forward to Kate performing in a not very good local theater production which leads into a heated argument on the way home. From there we watch as the pair try to navigate their life together and in the suburban wasteland around them.
I'm not going to lie I found this a tough slog. I never really clicked with the material for a variety of reasons and so found myself squirming in my seat. The main problem for me is that the film seemed more like a dress up affair rather then real people. Everything is spotless in the way that suburbia is always pictured to be, but never really was except when some people were having guests. Everything in the entire film is picture perfect and artificial. It could be argued that this is the way the characters see the world, but when it extended to Leo's office where there was nary a sign of any work on anyones desk I had to throw up my hands. Mendes maybe making a point but at the same time I found it all terribly obvious.
The performances are good with the exception of Kathy Bates who is so loud and obnoxious as to unbalance the rest of the film. I know that in some way she is a form of Greek Chorus but at the same time one had wished that she was a little less noisy. (Though it makes the final image more understandable from both the context of the scene it self and the film as a whole.) Give it a shot if you like the stars or like dress up tragedy.