The road already traveled

Rating: 6/10 (27 January 2009)

It's been a decade since Sam Mendes' debut picture American Beauty. That's a really long time for the movie-going public. People forget a film's uniqueness and directors repackage old material into a new movie, to the dismay of us film reviewers. Benjamin Button did that to Forest Gump, and Mendes has done it with his newest work. I'm not bold enough to make the claim that he simply re-released American Beauty as Revolutionary Road but the two are very similar. That's OK since American Beauty won several awards in various countries. It's still a worth a ticket price, but people will forget about this film in five years as American Beauty resurfaces in their minds.
The film is adapted from Richard Yates' extremely well-received novel, first published in 1961. It is an examination of American suburbia that blossomed in the '50s and the problems therein. Now, I think that such an observation would be especially meaningful when made in its own time but not as much now. Many other people, including Mendes himself, have already produced Revolutionary Road in both film and other media. This forces the movie to rely on something additional besides its tired premise. Revolutionary Road offers viewers a disturbingly lifelike representation of a failing marriage. Winslet and DiCaprio are so good that I found myself turning away frequently. After their characters marry and become parents, both actors are constantly uneasy. Neither portrayal is subdued. Even when they are not verbally abusing each other, both are under veils of artificial emotion. There are no feel-good elements to the picture. Revolutionary Road is as effective as any gruesome exploitative film in never allowing its audience a moment's respite. It's different from American Beauty in that distinct way. The film is pessimistic while its parent is inspiring.
Unlike American Beauty, the wife character is the one who envisions herself in a situation more grandiose. Winslet plays April, a former stage actress, who meets Frank Wheeler at a party and eventually marries him. They settle at "Revolutionary Road" suburb and raise a family. April suggests that Frank quit his office job and pursue his dream of moving to France. She even agrees to work while he determines his real interest. Things seem to be working until Frank receives a promotion which he accepts. Verbal violence ensues and April reveals that she is pregnant with the family's third child. Frank demands that she not abort the child, but secretly wishes that she would. She does it herself and dies of blood loss.
Mendes still has not analyzed the suburban problem in a sophisticated way. His newest film is stuffed with lazy and obvious symbolism that has no conclusion. April is unhappy, Frank is too comfortable to care if he's happy, and the audience wonders what these people would do if they actually went to France. It sounds like they would live the same boring life they had in America but in a foreign country. OK, I'll let Mendes slide on that one. Not on this one. April's death is tragic because it leaves the film unfinished. Death is the solution to obstacles we cannot overcome. We are condemned to live in a world over which we have no control and are resigned to suffer eternally. Revolutionary Road understands that statement but doesn't recognize human willpower. April says she doesn't love Frank, so why doesn't she just leave? There is no indication that she loves her children either so she has no excuse.
I'm going to do something unusual with this review. I'll give it three stars but not a recommendation. It's cool seeing Winslet and DiCaprio reunited in the antithesis of Titanic. Let's hope Mendes doesn't develop his sensei's (Tim Burton) knack for recycling characters and themes in his next project.