Toto, we're not on the Titanic anymore

Rating: 8/10 (6 June 2009)

In Titanic, Kate and Leo were the achingly romantic, star-crossed lovers who would meet again in eternity. In Revolutionary Road they show us what might have happened if the couple survived.
It's late 1950s American suburbia and he's settled into a similar deadening job in sales, at the same company, as his father and she's an unhappy, stifled housewife who once dreamed of being an actress. Along the way, both have meaningless affairs to relieve their boredom. Attempting to save their marriage, she devices a desperate plan to escape their narrow, regimented 50s existence -- they'll sell everything, take their life savings and move the family (they have two kids) to Paris, where he can take time off to "find himself" while she works as a secretary at NATO or UNESCO to support them.
This dream is shattered by her unplanned pregnancy (termination is not an option for him) and his recent promotion at work. What happens then is the unraveling of a marriage and a life.
This is not a movie for faint of heart. It's long, very slow-paced (a BBC production) and there's no light at the end of the tunnel for this pair. This is a far different couple from the lovers in Titanic. And, thank God for that because in this film both actors get the chance to demonstrate the true range of their talents, as well as again, the powerful chemistry they have together on screen.
There are uniformly fine performances by the supporting cast, with Michael Shannon the standout (and Oscar nominee) as the emotionally disturbed son of friends, whose insanity grants him the freedom to be the sole voice of truth in this repressed suburban hell.