Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Wheeler fortunes, 24 Sep 2009
Based on the late Richard Yates novel of the same title written nearly fifty years ago, Revolutionary Road is a drama surrounding a Connecticut couple living the suburban American dream of the 1950s whose marriage turns from sweet and nice-as-pie to something altogether more bitter and distasteful. Of course it brings together the leading actors of the biggest-selling movie of all time (Titanic, in case you didn't know) and once again I think Dicaprio is the weak link of the two, because although he has gained a lot of experience over the past decade and more, and has matured as an inevitability, so too has Kate Winslet, who shows her genuine A-list rating and who has garnered widespread acclaim for a number of leading awards. In this film she plays a housewife who believes that there must be more to life outside of and beyond their comfortable, white-picket-fenced but mundane existence. She puts the idea of a trip to Paris to her sceptical, conformist and less ambitious husband.
This is very much an actors' piece and something that I was eagerly looking forward to, not least because the man at its helm is none other than Sam Mendes (Kate Winslet's real-life husband) who also directed AMERICAN BEAUTY, one of the best films I have ever seen. Perhaps because of that I expected more satire, more black humour than is actually the case - but then I have not read the novel so these were, I now know in hindsight, misplaced expectations. This film is none the worse for any absence of cynical stereotypes, however. Instead it is intense to the point of being gruelling and draining, but ultimately a rewarding, memorable and emotionally gripping experience. Dare I suggest that the plight of the Wheelers will touch a nerve in more than a few couples who have been married for several years, have had the children, remember the dreams they once had and how determined they once were not to be just like everybody else, until one day they realise that that is exactly what has happened. In this way it sometimes feels like a disturbingly voyeuristic peep into our own lives, despite the two- or even three-generation gap between then and now.
It may be fiction, but thanks to top-class acting from Winslet and even better direction from Mendes, this makes us face up to and consider some uncomfortable home truths.
My initial review above was based on a cinematic viewing at the beginning of the year, but now I have watched the film again on Blu-Ray DVD. The 'transfer to Blu-Ray' - whatever that means - seems of a high quality to me, although having not seen the SD-DVD I cannot accurately comment on the difference. The interesting extras included several deleted scenes, and while my first reaction to seeing these was a wish that they had all been included in the finished film, I soon realised that the film was already long enough (possibly a touch too long, some might feel) and if all the extras had been included the film would have run for close on 140 minutes. The language options were eleven in number: Danish, German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish and French-Benelux. The only non-English language I tried was German, which was dubbed (i.e. not sub-titled) so I assume all the other languages were dubbed too. There is also an audio soundtrack for the sight-impaired, describing the scenes on screen when there are spaces in the dialogue.
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8 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Revolutionary Road - Blu-ray Info, 3 Jun 2009
Version: U.S.A / Paramount / Region Free
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
MPEG-4 AVC BD-50 / AACS / High Profile 4.1
Running time: 1:59:01
Movie size: 30,771,013,632 bytes
Disc size: 44,193,650,261 bytes
Total bit rate: 34.47 Mbps
Average video bit rate: 26.71 Mbps
Dolby TrueHD Audio English 2934 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 2934 kbps / 24-bit (AC3 Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps)
Dolby Digital Audio French 640 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio Spanish 640 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio English 224 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 224 kbps / Dolby Surround
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese
Number of chapters: 20
#Audio Commentary by director and screenwriter
#The Making of Revolutionary Road (HD - 29m:03s)
#Richard Yates: The Wages of Truth (HD - 26m:04s)
#Theatrical trailer (HD - 2m:14s)
#8 Deleted Scenes (SD - 25m:14s)
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Insanity is....The Oscars, 24 Jul 2009
"Do you know what insanity is?" asks Frank (DiCaprio) of his wife April (Winslet) at one point. I do. The state of mind required to get on the Oscars committee. How could anyone think that Winslet's performance in "The Reader" for which she won, was even half as good as the one delivered here? And how could one of the weaker fields for Best Picture in recent times have found no room for nominating this film?
As the other reviewer rightly says, fans of Sam Mendes will be pleased with this film. It doesn't have the humour and post-modern trimmings of "American Beauty", but it is beautifully shot (the upgrade to Blu-Ray worth it for sound and vision), superbly acted and adeptly directed. DiCaprio is really maturing into a great actor and he is in scintillating form here.
The film is gripping and yes, at times, harrowing, but it is not quite as simple as the first reviewer makes out. For me, the true motives of man and wife are never offered on neat little fortune cookie slips. The eccentric mathematician John (Shannon) plays a role like the Shakespearean fool, mixing insight with madness after his long subjection to Electro Shock Therapy. That he always gets everything right about the couple is one interpretation. But hit-and-miss would be truer to the tradition Yates is borrowing from, and more in line with my feelings about the film.
It is a powerful reflection on the struggle between individuality and conformity, and of the roles of sacrifice and self-deception in such a theatre. Nothing, for me, was more harrowing than the hollowed-out Winslet at breakfast playing the role of the good-natured drudge. As April says before that personal pretence, we don't forget what the truth is, we just get better at lying. Seeing what this means for the Wheelers is great cinema, far and away the "Best Picture" of the last year (shame on you, Hollywood) and a truly cathartic experience. Modern tragedy at its best. Highly recommended.
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