If the recent upholding of Prop 8, the gray weather, or some bad news at your job isn't enough to get you down, there's always today's DVD release of Revolutionary Road to do the trick.
What begins as a briefly sweet romance between Kate Winslet's April and Leonardo DiCaprio's Frank Wheeler quickly descends into relationship hell. Like the film version of He's Just Not That Into You (and I'm guessing the book, too), Revolutionary Road behaves like a how-not-to handbook for romantic interaction. These reluctant suburbanites fight dirty, making sure that each verbal barb is a lethal one capable of killing any self-esteem or satisfaction.
Based on Richard Yates's oh-so depressing (and far superior) novel, Revolutionary Road is set in the 1950s. Frank wastes his time at a New York City job, then he makes the dreaded commute home to Connecticut, where his wife labors at a job she never wanted: housewife. An unplanned pregnancy forced the pair into the suburbs, and neither is happy with where they've ended up, geographically or career-wise. Their attempts at escape don't remove them from their situation, and they brutally take it out on one another.
Like Yates's book, Revolutionary Road is cold and detached, but unlike the book, it seems to want to be more. Directed by American Beauty helmer (and Winslet's husband) Sam Mendes, the drama rants about the evils of suburbia, but it's not a very effective denouncement. Of course, DiCaprio and Winslet deliver fantastic, grimace-giving performances, but the highest praise should go to Oscar nominee Michael Shannon, who plays a neighbor's son who is a fantastic combination of mental patient and highly astute observer.
Though the novel came out decades ago, the adaptation seems to be nipping at the heels of TV's Mad Men. Both the film and the series explore the same themes, but the AMC drama does it with far more style and success.
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