Could somebody please tell me what is it about?

Rating: 5/10 (30 January 2009)

Could somebody please tell me what is it about? My first hypothesis is that the film illustrates a thesis that couple who believe themselves superior to everybody else end badly. Perhaps; but it is hardly worth making a movie about. Otherwise, I was at loss as to what was the plot of the story. She is frustrated in her role of a housewife, but it is not her husband's fault that she miscalculated her professional talents. Her lack of realistic assessment of herself and the situation is dramatically emphasized by her revolutionary plans for life: completely unrealistic. Besides, what is it that her husband is supposed to find when he seeks himself? My second hypothesis is therefore that the film is intended to illustrate the harm done no doubt to great many young people in the 1950s by the existentialists' myth of an "authentic self", which sits somewhere deep in us, to be dug out. What is more, the husband does actually get an interesting job, a job that, as we now know, has a brilliant future. Further, his infidelity is difficult to understand. We, the Hollywood clients, know that powerful men have romances with their secretaries. But secretaries choose powerful men, not zeroes in cubicles. An alternative template is therefore a passionate outburst of love, but both seem to be doing it rather of boredom, if anything. Nothing against Di Caprio and Winslett  they are playing well, but what are they playing?