Revolutionary Road (R)
Mike:
Mike: Tonight we are reviewing Revolutionary Road
, the new film that reunites Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio as a couple who struggle with unhappiness.
Scott was unable to join me tonight.
Welcome to a very special episode of MadMen. This movie is well made has a great cast and to me is the biggest disappointment of the year. If you haven’t seen Madmen, it’s a show about Madison Avenue advertising executives during the early 1960s. It gets the details down pat, has interesting characters and an addictive drama that won’t let go. Heck even watching commercials for Revolutionary Road with its army of businessmen in hats, I wondered if this wasn’t Madmen: the Motion Picture. I am sorry to tell you this film could only wish.
The movie is based on a book by Richard Yates. Hopefully, it’s a great book, because it is a mediocre film. It covers ground that has already been plowed by mad Men and the TV series does a better job. The costumes are right, the details are impeccable, but this movie just doesn’t have anything that will grab you. Honestly, it reminded me of the Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Aniston film The Breakup. I can hear you saying, huh? Even though that movie was supposedly a comedy, it was basically two hours of watching unhappy people fight and just be generally miserable. Guess what, Revolutionary Road may be more expensive and may be filled with better actors and is definitely not a comedy, but it’s the same recipe for a movie most people do not want to see.
When I first heard about this I was excited, because this was a new movie from Sam Mendes, who had greatly impressed me with American Beauty and Road to Perdition. On top of that you have a Titanic reunion of not just Kate and Leo, but also Kathy Bates. Sounds like a fantastic recipe. Instead of a wonderful desert, we get a plate of inedible gruel made with the finest ingredients. Dicaprio and Winslet do fine acting jobs, as you would expect. Sam Mendes directs the film with great care and precision. I’m not even sure that I have a problem with the writing, but it boils down to the fact that this is a story I don’t want to see about characters I don’t care about. Throughout the movie people tell us how special April and Frank Wheeler are. April and Frank tell us how special they are. No one shows us how or why they are special anywhere during its 4 hour running time. Did I say 4 hours? Sorry, it only seemed like it.
So how do I rate this?
I give the movie 2.5 out of 5 stars overall, and a 2 for drama. This movie is less than sum of its parts.
If you are excited to see Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in a movie together again, it may be short lived.
