Revolutionary Road (2008)

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

DiCaprio and Winslet are really polite, then yelly, then really polite, then yelly, then bleedy. From the unsparing but fantastic Richard Yates novel.

The leads are great-- LD and KW are effortlessly believable. Mike Shannon, as the creepy son of a neighbor who sees right through the is a hell of a find (don't recall seeing him elsewhere... and you'd remember this guy).

But man... this shit be airless onscreen. (The helmer doesn't help, I suppose; from American Beauty to Jarhead, Sam Mendes doesn't so much direct films as he does impeccably-acted dioramas.)

It just feels... unnecessary. I mean, I get why you make exploitation horror movies, or inspirational melodramas about sports, or porn-- there's an audience for these things. But jaysis, who's the audience for yet another tastefully-done depiction of hang-the-stifling-suburbs 50s angst... and one that doesn't cover nearly the ground of the book?

Did anyone dig on this one?

[Guest themetfairy]

I found it pretentious, self-absorbed and boring.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

You would, Jersey.

/ScotchPlainsFanwoodHighSchoolfootballrules!

[Guest themetfairy]

I'm NOT Jersey! I'm a New Yorker living in exile!

[RealityChuck]

Story wasn't all that original and was really just an excuse in futility.

The Winslet character was certainly stifled with life, but was also very self-centered. She wanted to go with her husband to Europe and take a job so he could find himself, but what if he found himself with this new promotion?

OTOH, the husband could have said, "I'll take the job in October, after we spend a month in Europe."

Too much shouting, too. That gets tedious and screaming is no substitute for acting.

Oh, and this wasn't a tragedy. It was, as I said, futility. In other words, "Life's a bitch and then you die" is hardly a new or entertaining idea these days.

The acting was decent, but the script was tripe.