Powerful and subtle

Rating: 9/10 (5 October 2009)

This bleak, bleak film was hard for me to watch. Leonardo DiCaprio absolutely mesmerized me as Frank Wheeler, and the supporting cast was phenomenal. Kathy Bates and Kathryn Hahn were heartbreaking; Michael Shannon was alternately dead and manic as the certified insane version of Frank and April Wheeler (April was played by Kate Winslet). But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Frank meets April and they get married. April has dreams of becoming an actress, but she's lousy. Leonardo DiCaprio's attempt to soothe April while blowing off her ambitions was utterly believable. DiCaprio's Frank is a shallow jerk with no soul and no ambition. I didn't know DiCaprio was this good. "Revolutionary Road" shows their lives together in the Fifties, as they end up in the march of grey flannel suits in grey, sterile lives. Shannon's character, John Givings, gives voice to their hopeless emptiness. Frank and April make a big decision to blow it all off, move to Paris, and live a happy, fulfilling life. April actually has a plan, and it looks like she can pull it off. Her dream of being an actress may have foundered, but getting out of the rut of suburban Connecticut, office life in Manhattan, and forced parties and entertainment definitely looks doable.
The characters in this movie are relentlessly human. From the beginning, Frank has no real appreciation for April's dreams, but he eventually realizes she's a human being with some feelings. They have two kids, and Frank wants to be a good father to them, and succeeds for the most part. He's not perfect; neither is April; but who is? As the years pass, Frank seems to be more aware of April's needs, less inclined to dismiss her. I watched their ups and downs, but there was a serious note throughout that kept me edgy, upset. Thomas Newmans' music echoed the tension without being tense; his theme was brilliant, spare.
The picture of life in the Fifties shown in this film is stultifying, claustrophobic, suppressive. One had to give parties, one had to dress correctly, one had to say the right things ("Oh! You shouldn't have! This is _too_ good!") - one had to conform. Frank had the peer pressure of conforming at the office, and April had the wifely peers pressuring her at the home. This kind of pressure makes diamonds. Or it crushes souls. It was a pressure that welded Frank and April into one crushed soul.
April doesn't seem to realize consciously her need to get out of the Fifties; Frank doesn't have that need at all, but he goes along because he intuits that it's a requirement. April has their tickets, their passports, and their dreams all in her hand, ready to go. She even has her job lined up. She'll support them while Frank looks after the kids and looks for work. I watched April's happiness with dread. It's the Fifties. Wives didn't work. Wives didn't support the family. Winslet's April has the brains and the ambition, the soul, that Frank lacks. But it's the Fifties. There's nowhere for her to go with it. There's nowhere for a woman's dreams.
"Revolultionary Road" is powerfully subtle. And the end I was left drained. Empty. There's no Hollywood ending here. I kept thinking of Rick telling Ilsa, "We'll always have Paris." In "Revolutionary Road," I knew they'd never have Paris.