Friday, January 2, 2009
Movie review: Revolutionary Road
Pairing famous actors together multiple times can be a mixed bag. On the one hand, any subsequent film has that instant air of familiarity, with many filmgoers sure to be drawn to it just for the chance to see those two people work together again. However, that familiarity is a double-edged sword; if the duo veers off in a direction completely at odds with their previous work together, it can be a turn-off.
Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan mined the romantic comedy vein for years, but even though both have done dramas, you never saw them attempt one together. Likewise, Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino are forever associated with crime movies, so the three films in which they both appear – Godfather II, Heat, and Righteous Kill – are all squarely in that genre.
And now we have Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, together again 11 years after Titanic made them both household names. Even though they're playing a married couple, something that many people surely hoped would be the ultimate fate of their previous characters, Revolutionary Road is about as far away as you can get from wedded bliss.
Set in the normally-idyllic 1950s (at least, according to most films and TV shows), Frank (DiCaprio) and April Wheeler (Winslet) live in an anonymous East Coast town, with Frank commuting on the train into the city every day. The film makes no pretense about the Wheelers inhabiting a fairy tale marriage, though – following a brief intro of the two meeting at a party, we're thrust headlong into the first of many arguments, this one with Frank coolly (and callously) critiquing the performance of April in a community play.
You see, Frank is stuck doing a job he hates because April happened to get pregnant when they were dating and the two of them did what any “normal” couple would do in such a situation – settle down. But the forced coupling has led both of them down a path they wouldn't have chosen and the resulting relationship reflects that.
Surprisingly, April decides to do something about it – she comes up with a plan for them to go against every convention and move to Paris so Frank can soul-search for his ideal profession while she supports the family. That this suggestion comes immediately after – as in earlier that same day – Frank has an affair April doesn't know about is more than ironic. Sure, the plan smacks of desperation from the start, but the two of them embrace the idea with gusto – for a while.
Revolutionary Road could be seen as being a film of the moment, as the marriage of Frank and April bears more than a little similarity to the central relationship on the Emmy-winning show Mad Men. However, that turns out to be more a detriment than a benefit. Whether by design or not, the audience is never given a chance to connect with either Frank or April in any meaningful way, so there's no real investment in how their relationship turns out. Consequently, the angst and the conflicts that confront them ring somewhat hollow.
The supporting players do little to enhance all the dreariness. Kathy Bates plays Helen Givings, the woman who sold the Wheelers their house, and pops up every now and again with her husband and slightly-crazy son (whose outbursts do give the film a jolt of life). The next-door neighbors, Milly (Kathryn Hahn) and Shep Campbell (David Harbour), despite being their best friends, are alternately jealous or disdainful of the Wheelers, and are hiding some unsavory feelings of their own. The Wheeler kids (played by real-life siblings Ryan and Ty Simpkins) never seem to be around, making only sporadic appearances, which is quite odd in a film that's all about the struggles of a marriage, in which children usually play a major part.
DiCaprio and Winslet are at their normal high level of acting, so few of the faults of the film could be laid at their feet (other than the fact that they chose to make it, that is). Part of the problem is that Frank seems both strong- and weak-willed, depending on the situation. The film never seems to settle on what kind of person it wants Frank to be and the story suffers because of it (again, through no misstep by DiCaprio). Winslet's character is more set in stone, but the waffling by Frank brings her down, too.
The familiarity of seeing them together again quickly fades given the tone of the story. One does wish that Winslet (a Brit) could learn another American accent – despite her skills, all of her American characters sound exactly the same, which tends to distract more than enthrall at this point. Directed by Winslet's husband Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Jarhead), Revolutionary Road had the potential to give some real insight on the institution of marriage and society in general. Instead, the film beats the audience down with no real purpose or, most definitely, entertainment value.
