Revolutionary Road: A critique

While suffering from a wretched chest cold this past week, I had the opportunity to watch several movies. One that I had added to my Netflix queue while watching the Academy Awards this past year was Revolutionary Road, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Now if you haven't seen this film and plan to, do not read any further, as it will spoil the film for you. If you are not in that boat, well, then by all means, read on.

I have not read the book, Revolutionary Road, by Richard Yates. I usually read the book before seeing the film because so often I find that I prefer the one that I am introduced to first. But in this case, I forged ahead and saw the movie first.

I should have been a bit wary since the last movie I saw with these two stars, namely Titanic, was not my favorite film. I thought it was all special effects, very little story line and weak acting, at least as far as Leonardo was concerned. Revolutionary Road was different in that, the story line was quite intriguing. It was sporadic and jumpy like so many American films are these days, probably to feed the short attention spans of the American viewing public, but there was real substance there. Unfortunately, the casting of Leonardo DiCaprio in the leading male role was not the best choice, as I feared before I watched the film. Admittedly, he has been seen in some well known and even respected films in his career but, as many times as I see him on screen, I always think that I am watching Leonardo DiCaprio play Leonardo DiCaprio. For me, he has no depth, he doesn't bring his characters to life for me, they always seem so flat.

On the other hand, to watch Kate Winslet is to see a true actor delve into the persona of her character and bring her to life, to wrench every emotion off the page of the script, and pull it into her very being. She is still growing and developing as an actor, but the growth and development is evident in every role that she takes on. It was a shame to cast her opposite Leonardo because just as she is enveloping the audience in the tragedy and loss of April's life, Leonardo is pulling the viewer out of the story and reminding us that it is just a film.

Now that I have seen the film, I feel a need to read the book. The film falls short in portraying the storyline in a complete fashion, leaving the viewer feeling that there is so much more that we don't see. The film provided nuances of intrigue where I imagine the book delved deeper into some profound questions, questions of motivation, purpose and reactions. For example, after April died, did Shep think that she wanted the abortion because she was carrying his baby? If so, how did he deal with his sense of guilt? There was the realtor's son, who was crazy, did he serve any greater role in the book than as a way to bring all of Frank's and April's true feelings to the surface? Was he just there to bring the critical underlying issues out and lead to the break between April and Frank?

For me personally, there were several themes in the story that deserve greater attention. The first was Frank and his career working for the large corporation, sitting in a cubicle day in and day out and getting no satisfaction from his careeer. For a while I thought that Knox was based on IBM but then I though it might be Xerox. Regardless, I could see myself in Frank. When April suggested they move to Paris so that he could pursue something that he really had a passion for, I thought about how much that would have appealed to me. I saw myself in that part of the story. I identified with April and her desperation to leave the suburbs, to get out, to go anywhere.

This pointed to the other theme that touched me. I saw that April was lonely, that she felt so isolated in the suburbs. It was 1955 and the rush was on to expand out further and further away from the city center. The drive to the suburbs was on but in the process, we lost connection with our neighbors, we lost connection with our community and we became insular. This is something that I have been pondering a lot lately. When I have thought that the boys and I might need to move, I have always thought that if we did, I would want to move to a city, to live in an urban environment, where we could be close to our neighbors, where we would see people in the morning when we left for work, where we would share a wall, and be a part of the activity of life again. April had lost all that and she was alone all day every day, with only the children as company and not even that when they were at school. Her isolation led to her desperation to get out and that led to her breakdown.

I could write so much more on this movie. It was so full of tidbits to capture the mind and grab the heart and intrigue the conscience. I look forward to reading the book and possibly writing more at that time.

BTW, radiation is going well. I don't know when I will start chemo but for the moment, things are running smoothly. Thanks for reading ....