"Look at us. We're just like everyone else. We've bought into the same, ridiculous delusion." …That this movie isn't painful to watch?
Leonardo DiCaprio (What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Romeo + Juliet, Catch Me If You Can) plays Frank Wheeler, a man living the 1950s American Dream. He has a beautiful house, a pretty wife (Kate Winslet – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Reader), two kids, a promising career, and a large selection of really awesome neckties. So naturally he spends the whole movie stupidly conspiring with his nutty vain wife and his sexy naïve office girl to destroy it in suburban epic fashion.
They succeed of course, and there you have it: 1950s suburban tragedy laid bare in all its chain-smoking ugliness. It's suburbly acted, perfectly dressed, beautifully shot, believably scripted, and it's horribly ugly the whole way through. You start off early on with a knot in your stomach due to anticipation that this can't be whatever Titanic meant to you or maybe it's just a sense of dread brought about by subtle clues given in the exposition. Whatever its origin, that knot only subsides long enough to let you briefly think that the Wheelers have a chance in hell at redeption or even a pleasant life, then the film kicks you right in that same knot once again.
Extras:
In 1080p and 5.1 Dolby Digital TrueHD, every attractive frame and and sound is brought to life, maybe too real.
One of the unintended Special Features is the quote on the front by Mick LaSalle: "A hands-down, watch -it-three-times-in-a-row masterpiece." So clearly someone liked it. He may also say the same for Hostel or Saw, I'm not sure. What I am sure of is that this Blu-ray edition contains a very respectable amount of Special Features:
- Commentary with Director Sam Mendes and Screenwriter Judith Haythe
- Deleted Scenes with optional commentary HD
- Lives of Quiet Desperation: The Making of Revolutionary Road HD
- Richard Yates: The Wages of Truth HD
- Theatrical Trailer HD
I understand that some people like this sort of film. I just don't see the attraction. I mean, I know this is ComicsOnline and we love comic films and fantasy and sci-fi and action and horror, but I am actually down with some classic tragedies. I'm a big fan of Shakespeare and Arthur Miller, as well as contemporary tragedies like Donnie Darko, or Director Sam Mendez' previous film American Beauty… But damn. Like the Wheelers' neighbor Shep Campbell (David Harbour – Quantum of Solace, Lie to Me) I just don't want to talk about the Wheelers anymore.
ComicsOnline gives Revolutionary Road 2 out of 5 suburban nightmares.
