An impeccably staged, detached tragedy

Rating: 5/10 (4 February 2009)

Why do we not sympathize with the Wheelers? "Revolutionary Road" is a tragedy, but we find little sympathy for the Wheeler family who bring about their own dissolution. If you cannot connect with a tragic figure than you are merely a voyeur. For the audience, there's no catharsis and no tears. We are merely clinicians or scientists, observing. Cold and detached. If the Wheelers were placed in the same setting with the same stimuli, the results would be the same. What lesson do we learn from this film? The Wheelers should never have gotten married.
Part of the problem is with director Sam Mendes detached style. The lighting in his scenes is just so. The set dressing, make-up and costuming impeccable. He can put together a beautiful image with the best of them. (See the beautiful, but similarly detached "Road to Perdition.") There are some nicely constructed moments in "Road" involving parades of faceless businessmen coming to and from work. At key moments, Frank Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio) nearly disappears into the cloud of drones or stands apart from them. Winslet and DiCaprio deliver intense performances that were undoubtedly taxing--there will be shouting--but we are always watching them from afar.
There is an invigorating moment, late in the film, when Mendes switches to a hand-held camera--almost always used to amp up/signal a rise in tension--and lets his film go a little. We are suddenly there with Frank and April Wheeler (Kate Winslet) and the film jangles the nerves. Distractingly, the score for this so similar to the one created by Thomas Newman for Mendes' "American Beauty" that you might swear the two were one in the same. "Revolutionary Road" is a bit of a curiosity. An impeccably staged, detached tragedy.
(Michael Shannon is getting some awards season notice for his role as the film's Jester. He's good in this, but even better in this year's deep-fried, low budget drama "Shotgun Tales." He was also the best part of the adequate Oliver Stone film "World Trade Center.")