Movie Review: Revolutionary Road (Rating: 4/5)

Revolutionary Road is about how a couple figures out what they want to do in life. They argued, struggled, and then agreed. But when some life events occur (e.g.: a promotion) and plans don’t really work out as planned, then the couple goes through the whole argue-struggle-agree cycle again.

It sounds boring but it isn’t (at least in the movie). I think the credits really go to the cast in the movie. Not only Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet did an excellent job in presenting the couple in the movie to be realistic, but also the supporting cast such as the real estate agent’s son (played by Michael Shannon), who was considered to have mental problems by his parents, was terrific to watch, because he represents the real value of life (in modern sense) among all the other characters in the whole movie.

Regarding to the two lead actor and actress, Kate Winslet was great as usual, although her performance in this movie was more explicit as she was in Reader. Her character changed from a strong woman, who was not afraid to bring up new ideas, to eventually giving up at the end after trying her best. Kate was good in presenting the changes in her character.

Although Leonardo’s character is more passive comparing to Kate’s, in my point of view, his performance was especially good in this movie. One of the best moments in the movie was the breakfast that the couple had after a very big argument at the very end of the movie. I can feel the deep tension in Leonardo’s eyes, because he was so scared his wife will just “explode” during the breakfast because of the previous argument, although she was trying very hard to pretend nothing has happened.

The movie did a good job on describing what happened when the couple determined to do something in their lives, which wasn’t exactly aligned with the social value at the time. And people sometimes cannot totally ignore the views from others around them.

Besides of all the good things about this movie, there was still something that I don’t like or at least I don’t quite understand why it was in the movie. First thing was the children, the movie spent so little time on the couple’s two children, who I have almost forgotten they actually existed after watching the whole movie. Second thing was the affair between Kate’s character and the neighbor, the only reason I can think of to have this affair in the movie, was to show how frustrated Kate’s character was with her husband. However, the movie spent too much time describing this affair, which I think it is totally unnecessary.

To sum up, I would recommend people to see this movie, because of the overall great performance by the cast. The movie does not exactly have a happy ending, but I think the movie shows although people do not always get what they want in life, nobody should give up without a good fight.