Revolutionary Road

By Maddalena Dottori
29/04/2009

Revolutionary Road is a drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, based on Richard Yates' 1961 cult novel.

Set in 1955, the movie tells the story of April and Frank Wheeler, and of their seemingly perfect marriage. They live in the Connecticut suburbs with two young children. Frank commutes to New York City where he works in an office job while April stays at home as a housewife. But they're not happy. April has reluctantly abandoned her dreams to become an actress, while Frank plainly hates his office job and struggles to find a real passion in his life. To rejuvenate their life, April suggests they all move to Paris, where they will be better able to develop their true artistic sensibilities, free of the consumerist demands of capitalist America. But what starts out as an exciting plan becomes all the more unrealistic as the Wheelers find themselves more and more confined to their lifestyles, while their marriage and happiness seems to be inexorably disintegrating.

Director Sam Mendes, ("American Beauty"), delivers an unflinching examination of suburban life that's both poetic and tragic, and the final results deserve to be applauded.

Revolutionary Road is a haunting, heartbreaking study of a difficult marriage and a couple's debilitating sense of hopelessness.

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