REVOLUTIONARY ROAD [2008] review

I blame Roger Ebert for this one.  It is well known I don’t like to watch movies that are just about people’s miserable lives, and REVOLUTIONARY ROAD is about the miserable lives of characters played by Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.  This movie is not as miserable as some other past offenders (BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD, FIVE EASY PIECES) and is not completely bereft of non-miserable qualities.  However, only watch this if you like to see a married couple argue, like really argue.  

I have heard some people question why suburbia gets attacked so much in movies.  I find that to be a good question.  I guess not everyone can be an urban hipster or roaming bohemian or an aloof scientist, which means someone has to live in the suburbs.  

I was identifying with this movie quite a bit, as I wouldn’t want to get into the trap Leo and Kate did, i.e. she gets pregnant so they feel they have to move to the suburbs and buy a house because that’s what people do.  They had no desire to be parents and have that kind of life before the pregnancy.

They make a valiant attempt to placate their desire to be different, while not shirking their responsibilities as parents by one day deciding to pick up everything and move to Paris.  This to me sounded like the makings of a good movie, but I am sure you can already guess where everyone actually ends up by the end of the movie.  If the story had followed through on them actually moving to Paris, then showing that they were still unhappy with married family life, then this ending for the movie, like the ending to THE GRADUATE, would have possibly made it great.

As REVOLUTIONARY ROAD stands as is, it’s possibly a well-acted film, but not a very watchable one, unless you are a critic that digs misery on screen.

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