A Mixed Bag of Brilliance and Flaws

Rating: 8/10 (20 January 2019)

25 January 2009. "Revolutionary Road" is easily one of the more complex and inconsistently brilliant movies flecked with flaws this year. It is both stunning and irritatingly frustrating in its delivery. From the beginning "Revolutionary Road" recklessly and immediately jumps into an overly quick and much too brief a dive into a passionate relationship between Leo DeCarpio and Kate Winslet and then cuts to Kate Winslet's somewhat questionable but deliberate performance on stage as her character's ambition as an actress. Suddenly we are then transported into the future where we see our "perfect couple" with the requisite two children who seem to be conveniently missing for most of this movie. There are snatches of what seem to be flashbacks in order to provide some meaningful continuity and emotional connections which may have been better suited to a linear chronological presentation (as the flashbacks seem to disappear a third of the way into the movie). Kathy Bates is wonderful in the first half of this movie with her nuanced performance.
The plot, screenplay attempts to be strong and edgy and at times it appears to succeed, yet some of the dialogue, especially the heated arguments between Leo and Kate seem awkward and artificial at times. Nevertheless, the substantive plot points are solid and meaningfully presented as difficult dramatic elements that are successfully performed on screen. Yet for all the dazzle and flash, it is difficult to believe that the values and implicit directorial outcome of this movie might not be stained with a dislocated overlay of contemporary 21st Century morality over the actual 50s mentality and value system.
In order to make his big point and climax in the movie somewhat like "American Beauty" (1999), "Revolutionary Road" has its big scene that is not quite as satisfying because the movie continues on trying to make a statement and tie up some loose connections that even begins to resemble a horror film ending where the whole experience could repeated over again and again. While the basic statement of this movie might be legitimate, it doesn't necessarily seem consistent with the reality of the 50s and the outcome and some of the script appear to be more dramatized and made up and imposed on the societal norms of the 50s.
Who is "crazy" in this movie is an interesting question. Whether childish, rash notions of finding oneself here or elsewhere is the point and whether one can actually find one's self by relocating somewhere else without first examining one's inner demon's first is questionable. Overall, this movie is powerful, compelling, but appears tainted by some questionable editing decisions (one brief scene where Kate Winslet is looking away from her house instead of at it after a flashback regarding how wonderful the house seemed to reduce the emotional flow of the scene), some questionable dialogue choices and arguments that feel somewhat flat, and the imposition of basic premises regarding the culture of the 50s our assuming we can impose our beliefs of today onto it.