Revolutionary Road (2008)
Country: US/GB
Technical: col/2.35:1 119m
Director: Sam Mendes
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates, Michael Shannon
Synopsis:
The mid 1950s: a young couple move to Connecticut suburbia when she falls pregnant, but finally determine to do the one thing that marks them out as special, namely move to Paris, so that she can have some life outside the home and he can figure out what he wants to do besides follow in his father's footsteps with the company.
Review:
A very difficult film to synopsize, since so much of the backstory from the novel must be filled in by inference, and what happens is less momentous than the dynamics of a relationship struggling to recapture that spark that seemed to set them apart from the crowd. Therefore, what we have is a deeply aestheticised visualisation of the highlights from a hypertense book, with production design and performance to the fore. This is not to say that there aren't well written scenes, nice bits of editing (especially if you haven't read the novel) and profoundly affecting moments, the scenes with the mentally unstable John being standouts. Mendes frames impeccably and draws fine performances from his leads, but at the end of it all one can't help feeling that this was a slightly redundant exercise when we have Billy Liar and American Beauty already.
Country: US/GB
Technical: col/2.35:1 119m
Director: Sam Mendes
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates, Michael Shannon
Synopsis:
The mid 1950s: a young couple move to Connecticut suburbia when she falls pregnant, but finally determine to do the one thing that marks them out as special, namely move to Paris, so that she can have some life outside the home and he can figure out what he wants to do besides follow in his father's footsteps with the company.
Review:
A very difficult film to synopsize, since so much of the backstory from the novel must be filled in by inference, and what happens is less momentous than the dynamics of a relationship struggling to recapture that spark that seemed to set them apart from the crowd. Therefore, what we have is a deeply aestheticised visualisation of the highlights from a hypertense book, with production design and performance to the fore. This is not to say that there aren't well written scenes, nice bits of editing (especially if you haven't read the novel) and profoundly affecting moments, the scenes with the mentally unstable John being standouts. Mendes frames impeccably and draws fine performances from his leads, but at the end of it all one can't help feeling that this was a slightly redundant exercise when we have Billy Liar and American Beauty already.
Country: US/GB
Technical: col/2.35:1 119m
Director: Sam Mendes
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates, Michael Shannon
Synopsis:
The mid 1950s: a young couple move to Connecticut suburbia when she falls pregnant, but finally determine to do the one thing that marks them out as special, namely move to Paris, so that she can have some life outside the home and he can figure out what he wants to do besides follow in his father's footsteps with the company.
Review:
A very difficult film to synopsize, since so much of the backstory from the novel must be filled in by inference, and what happens is less momentous than the dynamics of a relationship struggling to recapture that spark that seemed to set them apart from the crowd. Therefore, what we have is a deeply aestheticised visualisation of the highlights from a hypertense book, with production design and performance to the fore. This is not to say that there aren't well written scenes, nice bits of editing (especially if you haven't read the novel) and profoundly affecting moments, the scenes with the mentally unstable John being standouts. Mendes frames impeccably and draws fine performances from his leads, but at the end of it all one can't help feeling that this was a slightly redundant exercise when we have Billy Liar and American Beauty already.