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Revolutionary Road Review

Vic Holtreman — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 07:01:05 +0000

Short version: If you’re looking for an intense, character-driven movie, Revolutionary Road delivers big time.

Screen Rant reviews Revolutionary Road

Revolutionary Road is an obvious Oscar contender on many levels – Acting (lead and supporting), direction, screenplay… you name it. As the film begins, I started to feel like this was a Titanic reunion, putting Leonardo DiCaprio opposite Kate Winslet once again, with Kathy Bates thrown in for good measure.

The film opens with a younger (and single) Frank Wheeler (DiCaprio) and April (Winslet) meeting at a party or club and instantly hitting it off. The movie then jumps forward to April at the end of a very small stage production which is not exactly knocking over the audience with its quality.

Frank seems to be very supportive of April, who seems very distraught, consoling her as best he can on the drive home. She wants to hear none of it and when he pulls over to discuss it things blow up into full-on argument. He’s tired of coddling her and her dreams of being an actress, and wants her to accept reality. She belittles him and leaves him feeling supremely frustrated.

The film takes place in 1955 and Frank works in a cubicle of the day in a “Mad Men” environment. It’s a low level executive job where he and his co-workers just go through the motions of their decent paying but dead end jobs. Frank eyes a pretty young secretary and ends up seducing her over a three martini lunch.

At this point it seems that April has driven him to cheat via her lack of respect for him as a man, but as you watch the film it is clear that there is always going to be another level to what is happening with the characters. In an extremely ironic twist, Frank comes home that evening to a wife that is dressed to the nines and meets him at the door in loving, iconic 1950s fashion. It’s his birthday and she seems to have completely turned around her attitude as she and their two children wish him a happy birthday.

Apparently the crux of the matter is that April believes that they were both meant for much better things, and certainly not a mundane life in the suburbs with two kids. She comes up with a plan for them to chuck it all and move to Paris where she will support him so that he can “find what he’s meant to do.” At first he’s reluctant (and full of the common sense reasons why they shouldn’t do it), but he succumbs pretty quickly with a “why not?”

From there things improve dramatically between Frank and April (known in the neighborhood as “The Wheelers,” the perfect couple). Just the decision to change their lives makes them feel free even though they won’t be moving for a few months. Expectedly, everyone they know is incredulous and thinks they’re nuts.

Speaking of “nuts,” one of the outstanding characters in the film is the son of Kathy Bates’ character, John. He’s played by Michael Shannon, who will no doubt be competition for Heath Ledger in the Best Supporting Actor category at the Oscars next month. Shannon plays an emotionally disturbed man who has been put in a psychiatric ward by his mother. She thinks meeting with the “cosmopolitan” Wheelers will be good for him. He does a fantastic job, and in the end despite his barely contained rage he seems like the most clear-headed and sane person in the film.

He says exactly what is on his mind with no fear of consequences, and although his comments are usually tough to take, they’re also right on the mark. Really a riveting performance, and he has some of the best lines in the film.

But back to the story – as expected things don’t just go on to a happy ending with Frank and April, and director Sam Mendes manages to keep a subtle sense of foreboding throughout the film. He manages to make the viewer feel a definite sense of unease and every time things take a turn for the better you just know it won’t last.

Revolutionary Road is an excellently crafted film: The script is intricate, the performances real and the direction is great. The film immerses you completely in the 1950s, at times instilling a sense of nostalgia while at others making us think about how far we’ve come since then. It’s based on a book that I haven’t read – actually I went in thinking I was going to be seeing a completely different movie so I took it in completely “cold,” with no expectations. I didn’t even know what film it was until the title credit appeared a few minutes into the film.

Leo DiCaprio turns in another great performance (finally beardless once again in a film appearance), but Kate Winslet really steals it from him. She is amazing in the film and looks surprisingly older (the last thing I saw her in was Titanic). Actually I thought about that film a lot while watching this one – it occurred to me that this could be the story of Jack and Rose if he had not frozen to death at the end of that film.

Winslet has stated that she thought her character in the film was heroic, fighting desperately to have the life she really wanted. DiCaprio described his character as “cowardly,” afraid to go after his dreams. While I would agree that his character could at times be described that way, or maybe more accurately as having self-doubt, to me April came across as selfish and almost mentally ill. While he may have been afraid of change, she was devoid of any sense of responsibility to anyone but herself, despite being a mother of two children.

Revolutionary Road is the type of film that makes you very conscious that you’re watching a movie. By that I mean that while it was engrossing, I always felt like I was on the outside looking in – sort of like watching bugs in a jar. The performances are so good and what the characters went through was fascinating, yet the film somehow never sucked me all the way in – I was always aware I was watching something from the outside.

if you’re bothered by the occaisonal F-bomb and sexual situations, this may not be for you, however if you’re looking for a character-driven movie you can really sink your teeth into, this is definitely for you. I often complain about lack of character development in movies, but this film has it in spades.

Golden Globe Nominations: Little Love For The Dark Knight

Kofi Outlaw — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:35:24 +0000

The 2009 Golden Globe Nominations have been officially announced and it looks like The Dark Knight has been almost totally snubbed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

That’s right folks, The Dark Knight received just one nomination: a Best Supporting Actor nod for Heath Ledger’s groundbreaking (and freaky) turn as The Joker. No Best Director nomination for Chris Nolan; no Best Screenplay nomination for Chris and Jonathan Nolan; no Best Original Score nomination (although Dark Knight composers Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard are both nominated in that category for work on two other films).

So, want to see which films stole the slots that rightfully belong to TDK? Check out the list of the 2009 Golden Globe Nominees in film:

BEST DRAMA
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Revolutionary Road
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

ACTOR (DRAMA)
Leonardo DiCaprio – Revolutionary Road
Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn – Milk
Brad Pitt – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler

ACTRESS (DRAMA)
Angelina Jolie – Changeling
Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married
Meryl Streep – Doubt
Kristin Scott Thomas – I’ve Loved You So Long
Kate Winslet – Revolutionary Road

BEST MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Mamma Mia!
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Burn After Reading
Happy-Go-Lucky
In Bruges

ACTOR (MUSICAL OR COMEDY)
Javier Bardem – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Colin Farrell – In Bruges
James Franco – Pineapple Express
Dustin Hoffman – Last Chance Harvey
Brendan Gleeson – In Bruges

ACTRESS (MUSICAL OR COMEDY)
Sally Hawkins – Happy-Go-Lucky
Frances McDormand – Burn After Reading
Meryl Streep – Mamma Mia!
Emma Thompson – Last Chance Harvey
Rebecca Hall – Vicky Cristina Barcelona

FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
Gomorrah
I’ve Loved You So Long
Waltz with Bashir
The Baader Meinhof Complex
Everlasting Moments

ANIMATED FILM
Wall-E
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Tom Cruise – Tropic Thunder
Robert Downey Jr. – Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
Ralph Fiennes – The Duchess

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams – Doubt
Penelope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis – Doubt
Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler
Kate Winslet – The Reader

DIRECTOR
David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire
Stephen Daldry – The Reader
Ron Howard – Frost/Nixon
Sam Mendes – Revolutionary Road

SCREENPLAY
Simon Beaufoy – Slumdog Millionaire
David Hare – The Reader
Peter Morgan – Frost/Nixon
Eric Roth – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
John Patrick Shanley – Doubt

ORIGINAL SCORE
James Newton Howard – Defiance
Alexandre Desplat – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
A.R. Rahman – Slumdog Millionaire
Hans Zimmer – Frost/Nixon
Clint Eastwood – Changeling

ORIGINAL SONG
“Down to Earth” by Peter Gabriel / Thomas Newman – Wall-E
“Gran Torino” by Clint Eastwood / Kyle Eastwood – Gran Torino
“I Thought I’d Lost You” by Miley Cyrus – Bolt
“Once in a Lifetime” by Beyoncé Knowles – Cadillac Records
“The Wrestler” by Bruce Springsteen – The Wrestler

So there’s a lot on this list I’m OK with (like Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise receiving Supporting Actor Comedy nominations for Tropic Thunder, or Kung-Fu Panda getting a nod for Best Animated Film); there are some things on this list I couldn’t care less about (Best Musical or Comedy, anyone?); and there definitely some things on this list that make my head just want to explode.

Forgetting my obvious (and aforementioned) problem with the fact that The Dark Knight has been shut out of nearly every relevant category, I think that a film as wonderful as Let The Right One In was should have earned a Best Foreign Language Film nomination. And how Colin Farrell got a Best Comedy Actor Nod for In Bruges (which also got a Best Picture Comedy nod) will forever be beyond me.

On the flip side, James Franco getting a Best Comedy Actor nod for Pineapple Express is just plain awesome; it’s also good to see Mickey Rourke back on the rise, earning a nomination for his apparently soul-wrenching turn as a washed up athlete in The Wrestler (which I have yet to see). However it’s strange as hell that after so much early buzz Clint Eastwood’s old-man-turned-vigilante drama Gran Torino only got one nomination… for Best Original Song.

Other than that, it seems to be award season as usual. No surprise that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is leading the pack in nominations (after all the tremendous buzz), or that a Sam Mendes domestic life drama (Revolutionary Road) is also raking in the nominations. I haven’t seen Frost/Nixon, but it seems to have impressed the right people, because it’s coming out of left field to grab up a handful of nominations. Might have to get out and see that before Oscar season rolls around.

Speaking of the little gold guy, what do you think about The Dark Knight’s chances at the 2009 Academy Awards, now that you’ve seen the Golden Globe nominations? Do you agree with the list of nominees, or do you feel some great films didn’t get the recognition they deserve? Sound off and let us know.

(You can read the full list of Golden Globe Nominees (Film and Television) by clicking here)

Source: First Showing

DiCaprio & Winslet Reunite In Revolutionary Road

Vic Holtreman — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 05:28:14 +0000

If you get most of your movie news from Screen Rant, you probably haven’t heard of Revolutionary Road.

This film will be released on December 26th and is sure to be nominated for a bunch of Oscars for 2008. It reunites Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as a couple again, giving us flashbacks to Titanic. Ah, but believe it or not that movie is already 11 years old and both of these actors have matured a LOT since the last James Cameron “event” movie.

I haven’t seen Winslet in anything since the upside-down boat romanto-epic but I have seen DiCaprio in a few films since then. Believe me, he is NOT the young, annoying kid you remember from that movie. He’s gone on to appear in a series of heavy dramatic roles.

In The Departed he still had some of that youngish vibe, but he graduated to full man status in Blood Diamond and continued to impress in the recent Body of Lies. He’s already 34 years old, believe it or not. Kate Winslet is 33 and while still quite beautiful, she looks more “real” and not like the porcelain figurine she was in Titanic.

In any case, I’ve already seen this but can’t publish my review until it opens, but I can tell you that if you want a break from superhero/action movies and are starved for a film with some decent character development, you should go see this when it comes out the day after Christmas.

Here’s the trailer, but PLEASE don’t let the AWFUL music throw you – it is NOT used in the film at all.

[See post to watch Flash video]