A lot of people have talked about the movie Revolutionary Road. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in their first movie together since Titanic. Along with the Golden Globe that she won for The Reader she also picked up the Best Supporting Actress award for this film. Many people thought she would get the double Oscar nomination but that didn’t happen.
The movie is based on a novel by Richard Yates in which a young couple moves into a new house in 1950s suburbia. The drama then ensues when they start having troubles managing their marriage and raising two kids. Of course it doesn’t help that Leo’s character is a total jackass. But he’s like a lot of men who work a job that they don’t like so they can support their family.
One day the two of them decide that they are going to move to Paris. She’ll work while he stays home and figures what he wants to do with his life. This all goes well and good until a few things throw wrenches into their plans. Then as you’d figure their marriage which is already a bit unstable starts to fall back into its old habits.
The movie also stars Kathy Bates and Michael Shannon in a role in which he is nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. It is directed by Sam Mendes who you’d know from movies like American Beauty and Jarhead. It is very well written and very well directed. A good portion of the movie is spent watching the two main characters argue. I think arguments are one of the hardest things to write and the ones in this movie come off very well. A movie argument could very easily come off as fake or forced but you really believe how angry these people are at each other.
I am personally pretty surprised that both Leo and Kate Winslet didn’t get Oscar nominations for this movie. They were both just outstanding. There were some moments when Leo’s character really flies off the handle and it made me wonder where inside himself he was able to draw that out. Now as I said in my previous review I believe that Winslet’s best performance was the one she gave in The Reader and this movie doesn’t change that opinion. But I think this one is an easy vote for her second best performance.
If there are bad things I can say about this movie it’s that the pacing was a bit slow at times. But the dialogue helps to move it along pretty well. People who aren’t really used to or into these kinds of movies might find it boring but I didn’t in the least. The movie is also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and with how well it is written I wouldn’t be surprised for it to be a serious contender for that award.
Lastly I will just say that this was a good movie overall and it is definitely worth a watch.
My score: 8.0/10
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment