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 The shattered leftovers of the American dream, a young couple lost in a sea of conformity, humanity suppressed, oppressed, depressed. This is the somber world of Revolutionary Road.
A 2008 Sam Mendes film about a husband and wife, Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) and April Wheeler (Kate Winslet), who cannot find themselves in a world that has found them - the suburbanite milieu of the 1960s. They hate their jobs. They hate each other. They hate themselves. Both, to some degree, undergo a deep existential crisis.
 Based on a widely popular book by Richard Yates in 1961, Revolutionary Road is a horror story about a soulless family in New York's Connecticut suburbs that can't find anything to be happy about at all. They live on a lovely suburban street, Revolutionary Road, which I am sure has a lot of symbolic meaning.
In the early goings of the film, April is shown botching a performance at a local theater. She is crying and upset. Frank is comforting and seems to understand she really sucks at acting. No big deal. On the way home, they have a huge blow up about it. They pull the car over and fight on the side of the road. She questions his manhood. He punches the hood of the car. Meanwhile, cars whiz by. I thought the cars streaming by signified something here, but I am not quite sure what. Maybe that life goes on and does not give a shit about anyone's particular problems in particular. You either get in the fast lane or pull over and argue. Either way, the traffic continues. This flick is the antithesis of the Alpha Male movie. Frank Wheeler is a supine wimp, a pushover - there is nothing really manly about him at all. He rolls over for nearly everything and kids himself into thinking that his family is happy. Although, I finally think he grew a pair of balls toward the end of the flick and realized that it takes guts to raise a family and make a living. However, by then, it was too late to save his wife. His wife was a nut job. She was the classic stay-at-home mom, a prisoner in her suburban home. She wanted a life that she thought existed in Paris. Therefore, it made perfectly good sense, for Frank to quit his job as a business machine salesperson, pack up their suburban shit and move their kids to Paris, where her husband can find out about what he really wanted to do in life. Hmm. The problem is that suddenly Frank gains the eye of the upper brass at work. In his shitty job, suddenly he is in line for a big promotion! He can't immediately turn it down. In fact, he is told to think about it seriously. Hey, suddenly the job doesn't sound so bad. Couldn't they be happy where they are now if they really tried? The answer is unfortunately no. I have to say that April seemed to be the one totally lost here and I felt for Frank. Frank, began to doubt that Paris was the answer to their problems. I think he sensed that when they were packing for the trip and April yelled at one of the kids. Perhaps Frank realized that same April will going to Paris. What is the difference? However, she tells him she is pregnant and this ushers in a new darker plot line. She wants an abortion so they can still move to Paris. Naturally, they argue about this. I thought she said things to Frank that were overly hurtful and uncalled for in any argumentative situation. Despite this cruelty, Frank is determined to make it work. It finally does click for one moment, when they have breakfast together before Frank is off to leave for his new job duties. It is then, and only then, they say nice things to each other. Afterward, April attempts the abortion by herself and becuase of the blood loss, she finally gets her trip to Paris, which is to say, she has her escape in her death. A deeply, dark and disturbing melodrama about meaning and finding happiness, if not peace, with one's life, Revolutionary Road makes you think about individuality, life choices and well, being special. The film is superbly acted and put together. In fact, DiCaprio and Winslet were both deserving of acting awards for their work here. It was uncanny and scary, how real they seemed at times. And this was intense acting in every sense you could imagine. It involved both engagement in hysterics while also plumbing the depths of inward pain. Kathy Bates was wonderful as a local real estate agent, Helen Givings, who was "...fond of the Wheelers." The strong supporting case included Michael Shannon as a psychiatric patient, who, becuase of his being "not well" was therefore given free reign to say things that normally sane people would never utter to the Wheelers. David Harbour as Shep Campbell was also noteworthy in his portrayal as a neighbor who was actually in love with the deeply disturbed April Wheeler. In the end, I am not sure I feel the life of an American suburbanite is as futile as it is drawn out to be here in this film. Me? Hey, I got my football and movies. I have meaning. I have kids to raise. I have a family to feed. I am reminded of the the immortal words of John Candy in Planes, Trains and Automobiles when he says "I have a wife who loves me...". That is something to be very happy about and it has nothing to to with the trappings of suburbia. Do I wish I was an actor in Hollywood or a famous film director: hell yes? Who wouldn't? But, you know what, life can be good on Revolutionary Road. Man, if you compare the vision of suburban life here to that of how it is explored in a John Hughes film, you can't get more different worlds. I would choose to live in the Hughes version. -Matt DeReno is a writer living in Pittsburgh
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