Revolutionary Road is a depressing, tragic, immaculate, powerful force of a film.

Rating: 9/10 (31 January 2009)

Sam Mendes shocked us in 1999 with his magnificent study of American Suburbia with American Beauty. He's come back onto our screens with Revolutionary Road, a shocking retelling of Richard Yates' novel. It tells the story of the seemingly perfect family, the Wheelers. They have 2 children, live within a very respectable neighbourhood, financially secure and seem externally to have a very loving relationship. Yet with Mendes (like American Beauty), nothing is ever as it seems and we see how Frank and April's relationship becomes jaded, empty and hopeless. April is a failed actress who spends her days tending for the house while Frank has a job that he can't stand. They're relationship is dysfunctional and Mendes maximises the devestating effect of this with the flashbacks of when they were newly weds which creates a profound contrast.
Frank and April have an opportunity to break out of this monotonous, vacuous lifestyle they live in by moving into Paris yet the arrival of a pregnancy and higher job hopes for Frank leads to this immature dream deteriorating which leads to a tragic conclusion.
This film is beautiful, visually and contextually. It presents the superficiality of American Suburbia that covers up the empty, cold lives these people lead. Dicaprio and Winslet were the highlight of the film. Their performances were sensational, Dicaprio's tour de force performance was vehement, passionate yet at times poignant. Winslet's performance was whimsical and truly flawless. The most important thing was the chemistry of these two characters, this withstood outstandingly throughout the film, which was of course helped by Winslet and Dicaprio's partnering in Titanic around a decade ago.
Winslet and Dicaprio reunite in Mendes' beautiful film about the crushing effects of post WW2 American Suburbia. American Suburbia has been given another swipe by Sam Mendes, and hes looking as bold and brilliant as ever 9/10