Review of Revolutionary Road (2008) by Dan B — 21 Jan 2011

Alright, here's the breakdown: I had been anticipating this film for some time and was really excited to see it. It looked right up my alley. I love a good Suburban Discontent story (e.x. Little Children, Thumbsucker, and the list goes on), and if there was a cast that could deliver it this appeared to be it. I've never seen a Kate Winslet performance I haven't loved, and Kathy Bates is phenominal. It is sort of on again off again with DiCaprio as far as I'm concerned, but I believe he does have the ability to deliver the goods.

But getting right down to it, I was left with very ambivalent feelings about the film after finally seeing it. I must say the actors' perfomances were, in fact, spectacular so I tried really hard to like it, but in the end I just disliked the story - purely a matter of personal taste, I guess. It wasn't that the ending was tragic and depressing, I enjoy a movie that is powerful enough to stir up a little sadness. But this one made me want to slit my wrists for all the wrong reasons (if there are, in fact, right reasons). I just couldn't connect with the emotion of the film and was just left feeling disappointed.

The overwhelming disappointment was very similar to what I felt after seeing the highly acclaimed 1999 film "American Beauty" (coincidently another Sam Mendes film). I felt very let down with that one in very much the same way. The real tragedies here were the movies themselves, not the stories they told.

The only other Sam Mendes film I've seen is 2007's "Things We Lost in the Fire". That one I love, oddly enough. So I don't know what that means, but there you have it.