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Title: Revolutionary Road
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents, there is some sex , some strong language, and mild nudity.Recommended for ages 14 and up. |
Though people are very unique specimen who require special needs and lifestyles, if you grew up in the sixties chances are you aimed for one final goal: To settle down with a family and great job. This is the situation the Wheelers have found themselves in. Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) once was a man who took chances. He went to Paris once which is the only place he ever truly felt alive. April (Kate Winslet) is a woman, therefore she didn’t have too many life experiences before she met Frank, and considers having sex with him for the first time to be the most exciting time of her life. They get married and move to a nice house on “Revolutionary Road,” the place where successful people live. Problem is this is a lie. The American dream turns out to be nothing more then a successful trap.
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In which case Frank is forced to work ten hours a day at a job that pays well but is not exactly stimulating. Kate becomes a devoted housewife, forced to live a repetitive routine inside her own home on a daily basis. The tension that comes from this trap - and the social requirement that you keep a smile on their face - sinks the couple deeper and deeper into frustration and unhappiness. Chances are some people will watch this movie and think Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes (“American Beauty,” “Jarhead”) has made another anti-marriage movie. This could not be further from the truth. In actuality this is a very pro-marriage film, one that asks it’s audience to wake up and realize the “American Dream” may be nothing more then a con game.
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To be sure some people like the lifestyle, like their neighbors, but for others it’s a lifetime commitment that may yield small rewards. This con is pointed out with great poetry by John Givings (Michael Shannon in an Oscar-nominated performance), the son of a real estate broker who is certified insane. When Frank and April admit their lives feel hopeless he points out “Plenty of people are onto the emptiness, but it takes real guts to see the hopelessness.” Though John is in but two scenes he is the only one who appears to see the bigger picture, which makes me think he’s not insane, he just sees the truth people don’t want to, and thus he is punished for it. This is a hard movie to watch. There are so many underlying emotions that some people may not get what they see.
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Mendes proves that he’s a master visual storyteller with the most subtle of gestures. Using the widescreen format he emphasizes visually the distance between the characters, their life, and the illusion they’ve bought into. Judging from early reception the movie is already misunderstood, and some people outright hated it. These feelings will fade though. Just as time proved that there could be more to life then what was offered on TV, in time “Revolutionary Road” will be hailed as a classic ahead of it’s time. One that was emotionally riveting, thoughtful, and so subtle that it evoked feelings people didn’t know they felt.
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