My Life In Technicolor

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Revolutionary Road Review: In this heavy handed adaptation of Richard Yates’ universally acclaimed novel, we find a couple who hates what their lives have become.  This point is made in the 3rd scene of the film, and just keeps going. It’s not that the film, directed by Academy Award winner Sam Mendes, is that awful; it just doesn’t know when to say enough.  Yates’ novel follows the lives of a young suburban couple, Frank and April Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet) who have seen their lives become a bore and want to change it, however life will just not allow that to happen.  In the film adaptation the often highly emotional fights that are depicted in the novel, come across as being nothing but a showcase for the actors. Thankfully they do their job in playing these parts at their highest skill level. DiCaprio gives a near career best performance and then of course there is Winslett, who can show April’s longing and loss of hope just in her eyes. Michael Shannon, a very talented actor who has always played his characters with an interesting perspective, again gives this film a jump with his turn as a troubled son of one of the Wheelers’ friends. However, I feel sad that he chose to play the role almost identical to how Heath Ledger plays the Joker in a tad bigger film. It’s not that I’m saying he stole it, it just seems that the characters are very similar and his work will again go unnoticed. Aside from the actors, the set and costume design are wonderfully orchestrated and along with the under-appreciated Roger Deakins’ cinematography, they play a huge part in selling the movie. But alas, it comes to the storytelling. This is where I feel Mendes, and screenwriter Justin Haythe, truly missed the mark. Mendes, a gifted stage director, allows the scenes to become to overblown that they become auditions for Dicaprio, Winslett, and Shannon. Haythe chooses not to delve deeper into the psyche of Yates’ novel, somethig that would have made this far more interesting. Instead he goes for the flashy; which inevitably just hits you over the head with the same spoon over and over again. Grade: C+ or ★★½ (Out of 5)

Revolutionary Road Review:

In this heavy handed adaptation of Richard Yates’ universally acclaimed novel, we find a couple who hates what their lives have become.  This point is made in the 3rd scene of the film, and just keeps going.

It’s not that the film, directed by Academy Award winner Sam Mendes, is that awful; it just doesn’t know when to say enough.  Yates’ novel follows the lives of a young suburban couple, Frank and April Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet) who have seen their lives become a bore and want to change it, however life will just not allow that to happen.  In the film adaptation the often highly emotional fights that are depicted in the novel, come across as being nothing but a showcase for the actors. Thankfully they do their job in playing these parts at their highest skill level. DiCaprio gives a near career best performance and then of course there is Winslett, who can show April’s longing and loss of hope just in her eyes.

Michael Shannon, a very talented actor who has always played his characters with an interesting perspective, again gives this film a jump with his turn as a troubled son of one of the Wheelers’ friends. However, I feel sad that he chose to play the role almost identical to how Heath Ledger plays the Joker in a tad bigger film. It’s not that I’m saying he stole it, it just seems that the characters are very similar and his work will again go unnoticed.

Aside from the actors, the set and costume design are wonderfully orchestrated and along with the under-appreciated Roger Deakins’ cinematography, they play a huge part in selling the movie.

But alas, it comes to the storytelling. This is where I feel Mendes, and screenwriter Justin Haythe, truly missed the mark. Mendes, a gifted stage director, allows the scenes to become to overblown that they become auditions for Dicaprio, Winslett, and Shannon. Haythe chooses not to delve deeper into the psyche of Yates’ novel, somethig that would have made this far more interesting. Instead he goes for the flashy; which inevitably just hits you over the head with the same spoon over and over again.

Grade: C+ or ★★½ (Out of 5)


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