Something's Missing

Rating: Null/10 (22 February 2011)

"Revolutionary Road" features Leo DiCaprio (who I like) and Kate Winslet (who I love) as Frank and April Wheeler, a married couple suffocating in the face of 50's suburban life.
Well, that's not exactly true... Frank seems only mildly frustrated by the limitations and obligations of being a husband, father and provider. It's April who is madly, fatally disgusted by domestic bliss, or even the implication. She's a poison pill who would ultimately rather die than settle for anything, at anytime.
Many other reviewers here have noted the stifling life of 1950's suburban America. Enough. The fifties were no worse than any other decade- they just happened to feature post-war prosperity and a repressive, hypocritical facade, the result of the emergence of television, which provided the first mirrored reflection of our own decaying values. If the fifties were so bad why hasn't domestic bliss been successful in the decades since? Has the divorce rate risen or dropped in the past half-century? The Wheeler's problems were deeper than the calendar date...
And therein lies the main problem with the movie. April is really the source of all the trouble here, and we never truly discover the root of her issues. She's introduced in the film as a slightly-emotional failed actress, but that doesn't explain her unending attempts at sabotaging everything she and Frank have achieved. Her pipe dream of moving to France is a double-edged sword: she's as disgusted when Frank agrees as she would be if he refused: there's no pleasing this woman.
April is handled brilliantly by the great Kate Winslet, but something is clearly missing in the character: what could make a person fight this hard against every natural instinct, every chance at happiness? It is never revealed. Her affair with her next-door neighbor comes too late in the film to provide any insight... if she had been cheating all along at least it might be possible to understand her irrational desire to move to Paris immediately. As it is we're left wondering not what's wrong with married life, children, and American values but what is wrong with April... and in this way the movie slips the track and never gets back on course.
The movie also loses points for the character of John Givings, played by Michael Shannon. He's the mentally-disturbed son of the Wheeler's real estate agent, and his nonsensical inclusion in not one but two significant scenes is undercut by his inexplicable fascination with the Wheeler's troubled marriage... It's like the Narrator stepping into the film to force a catharsis from our leads by confronting them with their own failings, and it stinks of Plot Device.
On the whole this is a good movie, photographed brilliantly by Roger Deakins, who uses haunting day-for-night effects and captures the beauty of suburban dusk. If Sam Mendes had solved April's character by revealing- or even implying- her bigger issues this might have been a classic. As it is the movie parallels the very lifestyle that chokes its protagonists: something's missing, and it's impossible to ignore.
GRADE: C+