Revolutionary Road 2008

      This film is based on a novel by Richard Yates published in 1961 and the setting is 1955.  A young couple live in a Connecticut suburb during the mid-1950’s.  They struggle to come to terms with their personal problems while trying to raise their two children.  They have also arrived at the “seven year itch” of their marriage.  They both realize that they are unhappy.  April has given up her dream of being an actress.  Frank hates his current job.  One day, April comes up with the idea that they move to Paris as a means to rejuvenate their lives?

     April and Frank Wheeler are a middle-class couple and they are approaching 30.  This was the post war period and beneath a placid and self-satisfied surface, adults in this time period had discontent with conformity, social manipulation, consumerism and the future of the world.  Their biggest worries were nuclear extinction and environmental pollution.  I really liked the clothing and hairstyles of this time period.  Everyone wears hats everywhere, on the train platform going to work and in Grand Central Station.  April feels stranded out in the split-level house with its picture window she once thought she had to have.  They drink too much, smoke without stopping to counter and reduce anxiety.  They are susceptible to cheating on their spouses because of their boredom.  In reality, they both are living a good life but they are reaching for that something better just out of reach!!  5* (I really liked this movie)

119 min, Drama directed by Sam Mendes and written by Justin Haythe and Richard Yates with Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christopher Fitzgerald, Jonathan Roumie, Neal Bledsoe, Marin Ireland, Samantha Soule, Heidi Armbruster, Sam Rosen, Maria Rusolo, Gena Oppenheim, Joe Komara, Allison Twyford, David Harbour.

Note:  Imdb 7.3* out of 10* with 193,781 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 67$ with 212 critics 71% with 106,938 user scores, Roger Ebert 4*, RollingStone 3 1/2* Peter Travers, Common Sense Media S. Jhoanna Robledo, 3* out of 5*, age 17+, violence 2*, sex 4*, language 4*, drinking, drugs & smoking 4*.

Special Note:  Leo and Kate have a close friendship and they were both excited to portray the more intense sequences of this film.  They knew that they could push each other as much as they possibly could.  This was possible because they knew that they had the best intentions for each other.  April is acting in a play and it is Robert E. Sherwood’s The Petrified Forrest written in 1935.  The female lead is Gabby and she dreams of living a humdrum existence in the US to move to France and this is also April’s dream.  The director Sam Mendes was married to Kate Winslet at the time of filming.  He opted to monitor the sex scene from another room.  The rights to adapt the book into a movie were purchased in 1967.  Ryan and Ty Simpkins play Frank and April’s children.  They are real-life siblings.  Filmed entirely in Connecticut but supposed to be New York.