Sitting through torture would be less depressing than this film

Rating: 3/10 (23 January 2009)

So you think life's tough? Well, you ain't seen nothing yet! If you really want to suffer, try living in 1950's suburban hell. In that period, women's freedom and choice of career was virtually non-existent, and whoever tried to shake this equation, often found themselves on the wrong side of society's ability to tolerant social turbulence.
In American Beauty director Sam Mendes's adaptation of the bestseller Revolutionary Road, Frank and April Wheeler (portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet together on screen for the first time since Titanic!), a young, suburban couple going through the motions of life. April, who doesn't want to play the role of the lonely housewife, makes life miserable for husband Frank, who can't seem to make her happy. When April comes up with a daring idea to relocate to Paris, France, the consequences of the decision manage to make the couple's life even glummer.
Personally speaking, I found Revolutionary Road to be a depressing experience, lacking the optimism or cynicism director Sam Mendes demonstrated in films like American Beauty or Jarhead. Instead, everything that happened to the characters of the film was so tragic and sad, that I was counting the minutes for the thing to be over. The acting was good, but nothing we haven't seen before in the department of suburban melodramas - even those starring the same actors (Winslet was much better in Little Children, which was more or less similar to RR, except that it took place in modern day and was much more tongue-in-cheek fun). DiCaprio was OK, but good thing he earned his Oscar recognition for bigger, better roles like The Aviator and Blood Diamond and not this train-wreck of a film.
Now, I don't know about you guys, but these sort of blunt, straight-out realistic dramas don't help me feel better about myself or get a better perspective of life (like I believe most films should do). Instead, this film just left me shattered, annoyed and disturbed - and truly unsatisfied.
I gave it 5 point out of 10 (and only because of the decent acting).