Revolutionary Road (2008)

	Directed by: Sam Mendes	COUNTRY USA/UK GENRE Drama/Romance NORWEGIAN TITLE Revolutionary Road RUNNING TIME 119 minutes
	Produced by: Bobby Cohen John Hart Sam Mendes Scott Rudin
	Written by (based on the novel by Richard Yates): Justin Haythe

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Frank Wheeler	Leonardo DiCaprio	½
April Wheeler	Kate Winslet
John Givings	Michael Shannon
Mrs. Helen Givings	Kathy Bates
Mr. Howard Givings	Richard Easton	½
Shep Campbell	David Harbour
Milly Campbell	Kathryn Hahn	½
Jack Ordway	Dylan Baker

Review

Sam Mendes, the man who looked destined to eat retrospective cherries with the big guys in film history after his explosive, unwieldy and introspective American Beauty in 1999, returns with the extremely heavy and unforgiving drama Revolutionary Road. The film shares the unwieldiness and introspection of American Beauty, but lacks the entertainment and ability to appreciate the change of tone in most ordinary lives. Ultimately, this is Mendes' third potentially explosive film – following Road to Perdition and Jarhead – to end up as an overwrought and partly inane affair.

That being said, Revolutionary Road is valuable for the at times fantastic acting, especially by Leonardo DiCaprio. He turns his character inside-out in constant search for the little glimmer of inspiration to turn the situation around for himself and his family. With better direction, DiCaprio's performance would surely have been Oscar-worthy. Kate Winslet also has great moments, but her character ultimately suffers from Mendes' desire to squeeze juice out of the peel after having finished squeezing the fruit.

Fine supporting performances from Michael Shannon, David Harbour, Dylan Baker, and Kathy Bates make up an ensemble that probably would have made this script into dynamite on stage. As realized by Mendes, however, Revolutionary Road is an unforgiving and distended film which, on one hand, is able to communicate quite a lot about human nature, but which, on the other hand, totally neglects our ability to turn things around.