Friday
02Jan2009
Movie Review - 'Revolutionary Road'
Friday, January 2, 2009 at 12:03AM | Revolutionary Road
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates, and Michael Shannon  |
Is it enough to commend the look of a production like
Revolutionary Road? Does it suffice to acknowledge that
Sam Mendes directs this very specific type of human warfare with unflinching
honesty and that
Leonardo DiCaprio and
Kate Winslet go to those dark places only great actors can find?Some will say yes, but I just can't recommend Revolutionary Road. The problem is not the actors or
the period production design or Mendes' very measured work behind the camera or
Thomas Newman's score. The problem is the principal characters, Frank and
April Wheeler. They're both so incredibly detestible that you can't side with either one of them, you can't
feel for them, and you can barely relate to them.
The opening of Revolutionary Road is an argument. The middle is another argument. And the ending is
some other argument, this time with enromous consequences. What's curious about the first confrontation is
that Frank Wheeler (DiCaprio) pulls his giant 1950s sedan over to the side of the road, he and his wife
April (Winslet) storm out of the car mid-fight, fight some more, and then get back in the car. If, at that
point, the car had burst into flames, we would've felt some sadness that we had never gotten to know Frank
and April, but once you get to know them, you might wish for the car-in-flames solution instead.
Frank and April met at a party as two city kids right out of college. They fell in love with the idea of
each other. Their marriage is unhappy and unending. Frank works in advertising, while April stays at home
with the kids. The miserable bastards decide that to put life back into their marriage, they'll move to
France.
It's an idealistic approach to a very real problem, and France won't fix what's wrong, because what's wrong
is Frank and April. These characters aren't just bad to each other, they're just bad people. So moving them
to France would only mean that they'd bound from a tiny red Renault when they begin arguing on the Champs-
Élysées.
Reader Comments (7)
What?Because they are spoiled characters makes the movie bad?I bet every one of us felt like the whelers once in our lives...The feeling to do sth different, to escape.And you don't care about them?Of course it's your opinion but saying that because they are unlikeable characters makes the movie uninteresting is not true.It's true for you.You have to let yourself open in such movies to hear the truth...if you are not ready to do that then you won't like the movie.
Nick...the whole point of being a movie critic is to give your opinion on movies. A movie being "uninteresting" to someone..is not a "true or false" type of situation. What may be "true" for Colin (that the movie was/is uninteresting), may or may not be "true" for someone else...and that's completely irrelevant. Just because the movie may be interesting to you, means the exact same thing...that it's only true for you. It doesn't make Colin's statement "false".
You say "You have to let yourself open in such movies to hear the truth... " ...but you're the one who is completely missing the point that...there is no "truth"...it's ALL opinion. You either agree or don't. True or false doesn't even apply.
I have to agree with the first post because not liking a movie because the characters are mean, spoiled just sounds bewildering. I don't think that the Wheelers are even meant to be "good" people, that's not really the point. They are some kind of abstract figures, even caricatures of actual people. The movie is more about being trapped in family and career, etc, which I agree is kind of a cliche theme like already shown in American Beauty. But the movie is not trying to convince you that the Wheelers actually have a heart of gold...
To say that Colin can't think that a movie is uninteresting because he thinks the main characters are spoiled and whiney, is basically telling him that his opinion is wrong. Opinions CAN'T be wrong....opinions are not FACTS. Facts can be wrong...opinions are...well...opinions. They are not subject to "right or wrong" (as I stated before).
I have every right to hate an entire movie because I don't like the two main characters. You have every right to love a movie in spite of the two main characters. Neither is right or wrong...it's opinion.
Nick says "Of course it's your opinion but saying that because they are unlikeable characters makes the movie uninteresting is not true." In saying this...he's telling Colin that his opinion is wrong. Opinions, by their very nature, cannot be right or wrong! You don't have to agree with an opinion, but you can't tell someone that their opinion "isn't true".
How is this bewildering?
People reduced to descriptions of "good" and "bad" really should be reserved for Disney movies.
Two things: Movies are filled with characters we don't like. But very few of them only have characters we don't like. If, as is stated above, they're meant to be caricatures in Revolutionary Road, then that's just bad writing. Your job is to create fully-formed characters, or else what's the point of watching the journey? In my opinion, the movie failed at its job in that regard.
Secondly, I've loved and hated movies for all sorts of reasons. Nobody questions it when I say The Love Guru isn't funny, although clearly it is to somebody. Somewhere. And he looks suspiciously like Mike Myers. Alternately, nobody calls me an idiot for saying The Bourne Ultimatum is a great action movie. You know why? Because that's the consensus. But if I hold an opinion some people don't share, suddenly I'm unqualified to review movies. I'm focusing on the wrong things. I didn't read the book. There are a thousand standard lines that come up.
And I expect and encourage disagreement, more than a lot of critics. I won't respond to everything, but I love a good debate. If I was not at all interested in other viewpoints, I'd turn off the comments. But if you don't like the reviews, go find somebody who liked this movie. And then when they hate something else you think they should love, rinse and repeat.
I agree, completely. This movie IS about superficial problems of a spoilt couple.
It just ended up hammering depression into my head; as if you dont get enough of that anyways.
It annoyed me to sit and watch the characters choose the most unwise path they possibly could and then whine about screwing their lives up!!