REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
US, 2008, 118 minutes, Colour.
Leonardo di Caprio, Kate Winslet, Michael Shannon, Kathy Bates, Richard Easton, David Harber, Kathryn Hahn, Jay O. Sanders, Dylan Baker.
Directed by Sam Mendes.
1955 was the year that the makers of Back to Future chose as the year to return to from 1985. The journey was from the uglier aspects of the middle of the me-decade, the 80s, to a time of greater simplicity and niceness. They went back only 30 years in time. With Revolutionary Road, the film-makers have gone back to 1955 as well, more than 50 years earlier. On the surface they have found the same simplicity and niceness. But, the film probes what lies beneath the surface.
The location is suburbia, the cosy, leafy and trim neighbourhoods outside New York City. It is easy, as a number of commentators have done, to say that director Sam Mendes has been here before. He won a directing Oscar for the 1999 American Beauty, which also won the Oscar for Best Film. But that is too glib a comparison, especially as these commentators laud American Beauty over Revolutionary Road. American Beauty was far more complex. The two households, side by side, contained a greater number of characters, young and old, in moral crisis. It being the 90s, much more was on the surface and there were far more problems beneath. The treatment was franker, more explicit, according to the times.
Revolutionary Road does have some neighbours but the focus is on a younger married couple whose problems are no less serious but are those which tormented the adults of the 1950s, the problems with which we are more familiar, coping with marriage, family, jobs and discovering meaning in life.
First impressions are not necessarily correct. In a prologue set some years earlier, we are introduced to April, an aspiring young actress, whose poses and cigarette suggest some sophistication. In fact, she is a drama student. Frank says he is a longshoreman about to work in a cafeteria. In fact, he will be competent in a business office, holding down a solid job and in line for promotion. But, the first impressions linger and complicate our responses to the couple when we cut to several years later and April is upset about her poor performance in a play and Frank, thinking he is frank and open, upsets her even more by his presumption that she should give up. Then we discover they have two children.
Frank has become the kind of character Gregory Peck played in the 1956 The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit, a regular commuter to work, dissatisfied but keeping up the expected front. April has become a genuinely desperate housewife at a time when housewives were meant to be TV-commercial cheery, proud of their homes and gardens, caring for the children and waiting on their husband. Actually, the couple next door, who have four children, Shep and Milly, are living the same kind of life, Shep (David Harbour, obviously unsettled and with a gaze on April), Milly (Kathryn Hahn excellent in her constant anxiety to please her husband and make sure all is quietly well at home).
Aspects of the plot are what you might expect, Frank's friends at the office, the girls in the typing pool, the tedium of the work as well as April at home, restless. Their real estate agent friend, Helen (Kathy Bates in another different and persuasive role) has a mathematics professor son who is having shock treatment and brings him for visits. He is played so well by Michael Shannon who is very skilled in playing frightening characters (Bug, World Trade Center) and he provides a catalyst for looking at the truth.
For much of the film, April has persuaded Frank to give up his job and the whole family is preparing to move to Paris, to take a risk so that he might find what he truly wants to do, and she will support him by secretarial work there. This is pretty revolutionary for the residents of Revolutionary Road, the street where they live.
Ultimately, the film is a harrowing look at disappointment and depression, well served by fine performances by award-nominated Leonardo di Caprio as Frank and Kate Winslet as April. Both have appeared recently in Body of Lies and The Reader respectively to strong effect. These films reminds us of what good actors they are.
1.The reputation of the author? The adaptation for the screen?
2.The 1950s in the US: the ethos, respectability, niceness, values? Domestic, family, suburbia, careers? Socialising? Surface respectability?
3.The 1950s and problems, imposed expectations, repression, lies and betrayal, infidelity, gossip, envy, domestic violence, suicide?
4.The title, the irony about Connecticut and the road named after American Independence?
5.The Wheeler family, their reputation, as a couple, as a family, as ideal? The musical score – and the three-note theme with its plaintive tone for the family and for April?
6.April and Frank, the initial party, first impressions about each of them, the attraction, her wanting to be an actress, his being a longshoreman, the sophisticated look – but not?
7.The years passing, their getting married, the children, her performance in the play, criticisms? Frank as blunt in his comments? April’s sensitivity? Her not wanting to socialise? The car ride, the talk, her wanting silence, Frank and his aggression, his hitting the car? Her dismayed reaction?
8.What had happened to the marriage? Their buying the home on Revolutionary Road? The investment? Mrs Givings and her helping them with the house, the choice? Her talk? Attracted to them? The children not frequently seen – but for the birthday party for Frank’s thirtieth?
9.Frank at work, the chatter with his fellow workers, his job, the letters, the customers and their complaints, his annoyance, dictating the letter, it pleasing the bosses? The irony of his success? The offers for jobs, meals and chats with the bosses, the board, the possibilities?
10.The Campbells next door? Ideal, four children (though Shep finding it hard to distract his children from the television)? His wife, her tensions, the visits of the Wheelers, talking, sharing? The decision and the shock? Shep and his attraction to April? The meal after the decision was reversed? Happy, drinking, dancing, the wife getting ill, Shep and April staying behind? The sexual encounter in the car? The effect on each of them? Shep and the news of April’s death, talking with the newcomers, talking about the Wheelers, his grief, going outside, telling his wife that there will be no more talk about the Wheelers?
11.April and her life, her routines, the cleaning of the house, taking out the trash, shopping, chatting, Mrs Givings and her visits? The social groups in the town?
12.Mrs Givings and her husband, her job, chatter, her concern about her son, his difficulties, mathematics, April’s offer for them to visit, John in himself, his mental disturbance, his manner, talk, bluntness, the academic aspects? The effect of the visit? The later meal, John and his being confronting to both Frank and to April, his spelling out the truth about what they really felt? His spurning language? Frank and his physical attack? The parents taking him away, the nature of his insanity?
13.April’s idea for the family to go to Paris, her love for Frank, the plan, its possibilities? Frank and his declared love for Paris in the past? Talking with him, his hesitation, final agreement? April getting the tickets? Frank and his talk, with the Campbells, with his friends at work?
14.Frank and his relationship with the secretary, infidelity, her expectations and his treatment of her, going out for the drink, going to her apartment, the awkwardness after the sexual encounter? The affair? His bluntness with the girl? His decision to tell April? Her being puzzled about why he told her? Her realisation that she did not love Frank? His decision and telling his friends, their reference to Joy in the typing pool, his alarmed then smirking reaction?
15.The boss, the discussions with Frank, the proposals, the future, computers? What Frank really wanted? His comments about his father’s job – and his repeating the pattern?
16.April’s pregnancy, the discussion, the fight, the attempted abortion? This surfacing during the Givings’ visit?
17.The confrontation, the argument, the truth on each side, love and hate, April and her going into the woods?
18.The next morning, the clean house, April as niceness personified, her way of speaking preparing the breakfast, asking Frank about his work, his explanation of the computers?
19.Her preparation for the abortion attempt, closing the rooms, the towels, the bleeding, her death?
20.Frank, the aftermath, his taking the children out and watching them, his memories and regrets?
21.Mrs Givings, talking about the house, the tenants, her husband listening, her criticism of the Wheelers – and his turning off his hearing aid? An appropriate end to the film?
22.The presentation and analysis of American values, strengths and weaknesses, love and hate?
