Review of Revolutionary Road (2008) by Steven P — 02 Jul 2011

This is one of those films where I can appreciate the love and the craft that went into it, but was left feeling unengaged by it. I feel like I've seen this same film countless times before - with different people in a different place, but ultimately covering the same ground.

Even Sam Mendes seemed to be having a bit of a deja vu, because there were definitely moments where it felt like I was watching American Beauty 40 years earlier. The plot was solid and the acting was strong (though I still have my issues with Leonardo DiCaprio, because a lot of the time I find him stilted and self-conscious as an actor, and in this film it was about 50:50 between that and actually being convincing), but the direction was distracting (stop relying on the background music to do the work for you, Sam Mendes) and beneath all the gloss and costuming it just felt like a fairly standard movie about angry middle-class people feeling like someone lied to them about the American dream.