The Mirror has Two Faces. Review on Revolutionary Road Movie

I was lucky to get a good print of this movie and what a movie it turned out to be! Brilliant casting and even better acting by the Titanic Duo Leonardo and Kate Winslet, who play Frank and April, a good looking married couple in the 1950’s era, They are frustrated with their lives and are looking for a quick gateway from their bored and monotonous life. This is a fairly intense movie having characters exhibiting complex emotional behavior.

Just a warning, couples who are going though relationship issues, please avoid this movie. You may be better of watching something romantic or humorous. For starters, the first half of this movie will raise a Déjà vu feeling of how your relationship started and how often you fight like Frank and April. But the second half gets very intense and finally the movie leaves you with deep thoughts or ( in case of some ladies I know) even depression.

Sam Mandes is a great director who always presents his movies around human emotions like American Beauty, Jarhead or Road to Perdition but Revolutionary Road is by far the most intense of them all. The chemistry between Leonardo and Kate brings the best out of them. I am surprised that Kate was not nominated for The Oscars for her role in RR but for The Reader. I personally feel Kate has done a much better job in RR and she had more screen presence in RR than The Reader.

The setup is simple, Frank and April get married at a very young age and when they had their first baby, they move into a house on Revolutionary Road. Frank does not like his Job and April after failing to make her mark in Theater ends up being a housewife. They both want to break away from their present lives. Frank wants to study in Paris and Kate wants to be in Paris to work and support their family and in the process of trying to do so, their marriage is rattled to a disastrous end. Now it’s always difficult to understand why relationships don’t work and who should be blamed and this is what this movie brings out very honestly. Why did April want to go to Paris? Was it for Frank or for herself? Or why Frank did not want to leave the job he hates so much? Is it because of family pressure or because of an important promotion? In the bargain they made promises to each other which could not be kept.

Revolutionary Road is a rough ride into a complex relationship and should be seen by those who like realistic cinema. If you are a Leonardo or a Kate fan than this is must watch, for I have not seen such brilliant acting for some time now. People with depression issues or those going through breakups please stay far away, you may cherish this better when you are ready for it...