American Beauty: The 1950's Version

Rating: 6/10 (12 January 2015)

Directed by Sam Mendes and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, REVOLUTIONARY ROAD would like to be a scathing indictment of 1950s America and suburbia but unfortunately fails to say anything fresh, and its satirical edge is remarkably dull. Still, there were some fine performances and individual moments that stand out, not to mention the excellent filmmaking on display. The story is about the Wheelers, a couple who live in the Revolutionary Hill Estates, a Connecticut suburban community. On the outside their life looks idyllic, but underneath it all there is a deep dissatisfaction and resentment that begins to manifest itself. The banality of suburban life is not a new topic in literature or film, and this film does a good job getting the surface details right in order to make its point rather clear. However, I didn't feel like it did anything I haven't seen before in other films, like THE ICE STORM and Sam Mendes' own "American Beauty." In fact, this felt a lot like "American Beauty," with the exception that it was set in the 1950s. Even the score was reminiscent of the one for that previous film. However, that one had a more arty feel that this film didn't have. Still, despite the (ironically) banal subject matter, this film was well put together on every front, both technical and performance-wise. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet do a good job playing their roles, although there isn't too much depth to their characters at all. There were a few smaller roles that had familiar faces behind them, but they also felt under-developed. By far the best performance in the entire film was a small role played by Michael Shannon, the temporarily institutionalized son of the couple who sold the house on Revolutionary Road to the Wheelers. His couple of scenes have that acerbic wit and bite to them that I wish had been more prevalent in the overall story, which felt downright sterile at times. From a technical standpoint, the film is flawless and the photography was beautiful, belying the ugliness of the atmosphere projected by its characters. Overall, I didn't hate this film but I didn't think it entirely justified its existence either. It does a good job of portraying suburban malaise, but at the end of it you have to ask "So what?" Still it made for a pleasant, if unspectacular, viewing experience and was capped off with the perfect ending.