Revolutionary Road

An excellent production that's success hinges solely on two things. The performances and on whether the parts their playing are compelling and interesting to you. I think by and large that's why this movie has met with such split reactions from critics and audiences. If someone doesn't understand the motivations of the lead characters, their frustrations, their deep rooted misery, and why they are in the state they're in, and then care that they are in that state, then the movie fails. But when you strip a movie bare of everything except the story and the characters, then there is nothing else for the audience to become entranced with, and therefore it is more vulnerable to critique. In Revolutionary Road there is no doubt that the performances are fantastic. I have never been a DiCaprio fan, but there a couple scenes in this picture that almost had me sold on him, and there is no doubt his exclusion at the Academy Awards in favour of the ghastly overrated work of Richard Jenkins and Frank Langella was a terrible snub. And Winslet, well this woman is possibly the greatest actress to ever grace the screen so of course she's fantastic, energetic, and very articulate. The supporters are all very strong, in particular the sharp-tongued Michael Shannon. For me the story was mostly very successful, I had a few issues, and I felt DiCaprio's character was not as sympathetic as the movie needed him to me be. But overall I liked this film a lot, but didn't love it. Roger Deakins cinematography was boring, especially after a decade working with Joel & Ethan Coen, and doubly disappointing considering this is a Sam Mendes picture. And on the mention of the director, I wish that he had a more active role in this film, it seems like he was happy just to let the actors flush out the scenes and shoot it capably. He had a few instances where you could see flashes of his former brilliance, but for the most part he was an inactive participant. I understand the need to let the actors have control of this film, but consider Darren Aronofsky's work this year in The Wrestler which is also largely a performance vehicle, but he still manages to put his stamp on it and make some very bold directorial decisions. So anyway go see Revolutionary Road, and keep an open mind about it.