unhappily ever after

Rating: 7/10 (20 November 2016)

It's early 60's in the suburbs of New York City. April (Kate Winslet) and Frank Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio) are unhappily married with two kids. Her amateur acting career is a flop. He's bored going into NYC for office work and has an afternoon fling with younger worker Maureen Grube (Zoe Kazan) on his 30th birthday. Their neighbor friends Shep (David Harbour) and Milly Campbell (Kathryn Hahn) are just as unhappy. Their realtor friend Helen Givings (Kathy Bates) has son John (Michael Shannon) who recently got out of psychiatric hospital and April agrees to befriend him. April tells Frank about her wild idea to sell everything and move to Paris. He agrees and grows excited. Then his boss offers him a promotion and April gets pregnant.
Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio reunite with her then-husband Sam Mendes as the director. It would be impossible and maybe ill-advised to repeat the characters in Titanic. That's not to say that it's not strange for Jack and Rose to keep yelling at each other. It is beautifully made. It is an unhappy watch done in the most expert way. It is seriously good work but it does make me sad. The other problem is that the kids are almost extras in this film. They are bound to be compelling characters but this film does not exploit them. There is a self-pitying self-indulgence about these people that ignoring the kids does fit.