Review of Revolutionary Road (2008) by Cynthiac — 12 Jan 2009

While I haven't read the book (which is supposedly a lot better) on which the movie is based, in contrast with the problems in the world you can't help thinking there is something contrived about April and Frank's desperation for a better life.

Few people are doing what they dream about, but most stuff their disappointment, count their blessings and muddle on. In this case the couple have no financial or medical problems, two healthy children, and are barely thirty years old.

Realizing (as in the case of the Kate Winslet character) that you will never be a great actress, and in the case of Frank a great something else (he admits he has no clue as to what that would have been), being a rite of passage makes it hard to sympathize with the premise that if they just moved to another country (with April working as a secretary and Leo becoming a stay at home Dad), their dreams would fall into place.

I would have found the premise even more irritating had the movie not been so relentlessly depressing, from the first scene - to especially - the last.