Frighteningly real

Rating: 10/10 (6 February 2009)

Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio were the incentive of my going to see this film, and I could not be more convinced of their talent than I am after the two-hour brilliance.
This film is reality in its purest, yet magnificently artistic form  the anger that is portrayed repetitively and in various occasions reminded me of the wrath I myself occasionally experience, from the overture of an argument to its climax; the screaming, the furious need to verbally and physically harm, punch, kick, no matter how much affection is felt towards the recipient. Even during the scenes that are meant to be tranquil, there is anxiety and tension hidden in their smiles, a sort of counterfeit politeness that should never be present in a happy relationship.
It is all a depiction of two genuine lives that have the potential of existing in complete harmony, yet cannot because of the stereotypical environment and situation they find themselves in. They both crave change, an alteration in their monotonous state of being, but because of the lengthy period of time that they have spent in such a circumstance, their mentality is differently modified. April (Kate Winslet) finds unreserved determination to leave to Paris and although her character seems at times erratic, we gradually come to understand that she is in fact the stronger personality of the two; she truly finds change favorable, whereas Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) seems to find the idea of change more flattering than change itself.
Each choice a person makes can change a life, and that life is not always theirs. This film shows us just how wrong something right can be, as well as how right something wrong can be.