Dark, depressing and completely unrewarding

Rating: Null/10 (7 January 2009)

If you like to watch mundane, depressing people lament over their lives for two hours, you are in for a real treat. Bringing out morbid and highly unattractive performances from Hollywood actors seems to be Sam Mendes' strength, and in Revolutionary Road he has outdone himself. The characters in American Beauty are all sweet-as-pie, angelic beings of light compared to the protagonists here. There is no payoff  it's just two hours of cringing. Nothing beautiful is expressed, nothing valuable is preached, nothing heartening is communicated. I would sooner watch a 3 year old throw an hour long temper tantrum than sit through this again.