You Say You Want A Revolution? It's Not Here.

Rating: 3/10 (24 December 2009)

This movie gets three stars for having the great talents of Leo, Kate and Kathy Bates in it. If not for them, it wouldn't rate any stars. It boggles my mind that so many people gave this movie a high rating.
The story begins with a fight and if you turn off the movie after that first scene, you can save yourself the extra two hours. There is no story arc beyond what your assumption would be from that first fight. Nothing unexpected happens, and no one changes in the film from the people you see in that first fight. It is so boring I was willing the time counter to move faster. If it weren't for Kate and Leo starring in it, I would have turned it off, but felt an annoying obligation to watch, thinking maybe there would be something more just around the next corner. No such luck.
Revolutionary Road left out the revolution and revelation while promising expectations that never get delivered. Yes everyone has dreams and some people are fearful of reaching for them, some settle and are happy with that and others can't abide settling. Any other way of expressing that theme would have been more interesting than the un-revolutionary, unremarkable, downright banal road this film took.