- It’s completely amazing how much an audience can shift the entire tone of a movie, because I swear this movie is really, really bad satire that had our audience in gales of laughter at least 65% of the time. It’s like Sam Mendes was purposely creating subtle mockery of all the movies about bored suburbanites that have come out in the last decade since, ironically, American Beauty. The problem is, though, that he isn’t. He’s deathly serious about it all. You can tell because of the absolutely hilarious gravitas in the closing credits. The final scene fades to black and in the Most Serious Serif of Important Filmmaking™, the words “directed by Sam Mendes” come up on the screen in silent revery for the awe-inspiring spectacle we just had the privilege of witnessing.
- I haven’t yet finished Season 2 of Mad Men, but I’m pretty sure that show covers all the same emotional territory in a far superior way.
- I really hope to never see another DIY abortion in a movie. Sure, it was tastefully done (for lack of a better way of describing it) but… once is enough.
- Speaking of which, how obvious was it that April would end up killing herself and, more importantly, how she would do it? When she pulled out the Rubber Tube of Spontaneous Home Abortion after it had been made explicitly clear that she had passed the cut off date for getting an actual medically sound abortion, people in the audience actually gasped in surprise. Come on, people.
- I find it odd that April whines profusely about being trapped in the role of suburban wife and mother and yet we rarely see her with her children. I know Frank eventually accuses her of not loving her children, having referred to them as a mistake and a cover-up, and so perhaps she’s supposed to be distant but if that’s the case, emotional distance would have sufficed. Having the kids shipped off to the baby sitter’s every ten minutes kind of removes about 50% of April’s issues with living in Connecticut.
- I want 1950s skirts
- And shoes.
- And furniture.
- It would have been nice to know a little bit more about April’s upbringing. We hear about Frank’s dad being a career man at the same company he now works at and so we have a context for his self-loathing, but April comes across as a failed artist with an inability to recognize that she has no talent. We’re supposed to infer that this streak of creativity she apparently possesses is why she can’t be cooped up in Frank’s square little world, but it would have been nice to have some insight into what caused her to develop an outlook in life that wound up to be in dire opposition to where her path in life took her.
- I think what I like most about the fact that they live on Revolutionary Road is the dire irony that there is nothing revolutionary about anything they are feeling or experiencing. Sit down and shut up, you special snowflakes. April comments at one point that the only reason their suburban life works is because they exist knowing they are superior to the world they inhabit but then she points out that they’re not, that they’re not special and that they’re just like everyone else. Naturally, this doesn’t stop them from acting like they’re the only people whose lives have taken a different course because of an accidental pregnancy. Having the self awareness to acknowledge that you are not special does not give you carte blanche to continue acting like you are special. What I wouldn’t give for Tyler Durden to come give them both a much needed chemical burn.
- Kate was very good but not necessarily great. Leo was off somehow; there was a falseness to him that I know is supposed to be part of the suburban mask hiding his undiscovered greatness, but it didn’t come across as well as it could have. I do like to watch him yell and cry, though, so I suppose that’s something.
- I know everyone keeps saying that for those who were dying to see Jack and Rose reunited, they’ll be in for a shock with this movie. I think this movie could actually be exactly what Jack and Rose would have turned into if the Titanic hadn’t sunk and they had actually been forced to get to know each other for more than five minutes. Early in the film April tells Frank that he’s the most interesting person she’s ever met but we have to take her solely at her word because aside from a few anecdotes you might get in small talk, you’re not really given much else to support the theory that Frank is actually interesting; you get the feeling that in a similar situation, Jack Dawson’s heroic tales of 10 cent portraits and Monterey squid boats would stop being interesting once he had run out of stories to tell. Plus, you know, both Rose and April were actresses by one definition or another — an actress! There’s your first clue, Sherlock! (I do still love Jack and Rose, in case that needed to be restated. They’re obviously more likable than either of the Wheelers.)
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I saw this movie last night. I really really wanted to like it too… but I don’t know. I just couldn’t get there.
I mean the acting was good…but I just had no emotional connection at all to this.
I agree with what you said about Leo being off. It was like the dialogue didn’t gel with his mouth or something? I couldn’t figure it out.
This was the best movie I have seen in a really long time. How could anyone here not relate to it? It was heartbreaking to see them living a lie. Their whole exsitance was a lie. They hated their lives, yet felt trapped in the pressures of the society they were foreced to be apart of. Every couple in the movie was trapped in a loveless hopeless marriage. The movie conveyed all of this very well. And the desire to truly live not just go through the motions of a life you are supposed to live, but a life WORTH living. I personally was touched by the movie and found the acting very convincing as an actress myself. The way each character could speak through just their eyes and facial expressions I mean it was very real and heartrenching to watch the characters live a hopeless life. I think everyone feels that way at times, when you finally realize that there is more to life worth living than just going through the motions, but not knowing how to get there. I was just suprised not to see any good reviews of this movie. I loved it and would encourage those not looking for another Titanic romance, but a film about real struggling relationships, to go out there and see it. Phenominal film.
I’d find the characters and their situations easier to relate to if they were not so phenomenally self-absorbed. My go-to movie for real struggling relationships of all kinds is The Wrestler, which depicts struggling without also suffering from intense melodrama.
You summed up my thoughts quite well, thank you! I keep thinking of this movie because I expected so much more and ended up depressed and disappointed. Especially given the current times, where people are losing their homes and good jobs, however boring, are hard to find, their “drama” just seems so out of line …. self inflicted. Don’t need to see this one again, but yes, I also loved the clothing, furniture, and music!