The Dark Side of The 'Burbs

Rating: 8/10 (11 May 2017)

The dream is set: wife and husband with two kids will leave everything behind in suburban America and live in Paris where life and personal ambition can be achieved and, more so, felt. It's a dream. It barely rings logically now in the 21st century. So, how can it hold water during the 1950s?
It should first be mentioned that this is no Leonardo DiCaprio-Kate Winslet reunion with foggy window love on a sinking ship. Winslet's character, April Wheeler, is the one who brings up Paris, and it's up to her neighbors, her husband's coworkers, and her husband, Frank (DiCaprio), to accept the venture as reality. Whiskey, chain-smoking, and superficial conversation among plastic covered couches go against whimsical idealism with an Eiffel Tower on the side. This is an easy win for the 'burbs.
I loved this movie, but I also think it encompasses its own specific audience. If you enjoyed American Beauty, you are in for an enjoyably intense experience. Sam Mendes directed both, and, as a side note, Kate Winslet is his real-life wife. Mendes seems to be obsessed with what really happens behind the walls of so-called happily married families with white picket fences. It's not that he sees the suburban life as sinister; it's just too ordinary. We root for April and Frank, but we also know that a job promotion, a third child, and skeptic friends will pull them away from the dream.
Watching DiCaprio and Winslet, it is difficult to remember these were the two lovebirds in Titanic. Here, their on-screen relationship is more real and fragile. They are flawed, and it is useless to assign blame as each one is genuinely trying to keep the marriage together in a low divorce rate era. Along with their first-rate chemistry, Michael Shannon gives a humorous performance as John Givings, a neighbor just released from a mental asylum with more sense than anyone in the movie.
All in all, Revolutionary Road is a meticulous study of a marriage in crisis. It works best if the viewer is prepared for a tragedy to question, learn from, or simply embrace.