Middle-class, suburban America seen as a creative and emotional dead-end...

Rating: 5/10 (25 January 2009)

Playing a business equipment salesman in the 1950s--a husband and father of two whose life has become a depressing rut--Leonardo DiCaprio doesn't quite have the chops here to portray angst successfully. The 30-year-old blues appear to have arrived too early for the actor (even Richard Burton had to wait a while before the marital blahs wore well on him). DiCaprio works commendably hard under Sam Mendes' direction, furrowing his brow and keeping his voice in a lower register, but he still looks like a kid in his suits and hats. Kate Winslet (reunited with DiCaprio after their successful pairing in 1997's "Titanic") plays his housewife-spouse, and looks terrific in her '50s wardrobe even if her character is almost impossible to reach (she's either too stony or too talkative). This prestigious-looking adaptation of Richard Yates' novel is rather like a Douglas Sirk melodrama with the central issue missing. It is purposefully glossy and plush, yet the argumentative digs and disappointments which crop up between this immature-acting couple are supposed to be far more edgy and provocative than those found in Sirk's potboilers. One might be forgiven for wondering what the hell is eating away at these two; opening with a fight scene in front of their car at night, I felt DiCaprio's Frank and Winslet's April were eons away from George and Martha of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Winslet simply cannot eke out a tangible character within this sterile format (one wants to like her April solely because Winslet looks so beautiful, but April has far less dimensions than most heroines). The husband's job, the couple's plans for the future, the neighbor next-door who harbors a secret crush on the unhappy Mrs., all contribute to making this portrait an interesting journey--but is it a worthwhile, moving experience? I don't believe so, not with these leads and not with Justin Haythe's callow screenplay. "Revolutionary Road" (terrible title!) promises to be a heady exercise; it has the impeccable production and slick sweep of a good commercial movie for grown-ups, but Mendes instead offers us selfish adult children and endless bickering. Give me Sirk any day. Three Oscar nominations: for Michael Shannon as Best Supporting Actor, Albert Wolsky for his costume design (deservedly so) and for art direction. ** from ****