Revolutionary Road

Revolutionary Road, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslett, is set in the 1950s in Connecticut. The film highlights the lives of a young couple, Frank and April. They appear to have the perfect lives from the outside. Frank has a job in New York City and April stays at home with their two children. However, as we get to know more about the characters, we can see the inner stuggles occuring within, and between, the couple. April wants to be an actress and Frank feels stuck in his mundane job. The couple gets a crazy idea to pack up everything and move to Paris. Frank had been there during WW2 and loved it. Frank and April feel that this will get them out of the rut they seem to have fallen into. Unfortunately, their plans fall through. April finds out she is pregnant. Frank feels that this is a sign that they should not go, although April is willing to "take care of things". We watch as this couple slowly, and quite painfully, falls apart. Several scenes are shot showing the couple yelling at each other and telling the other person they hate each other and want a divorce. However, one morning, things seem different. April is downstairs making breakfast for Frank while he is getting ready for work. On screen, it seems as if things are back to normal. As a viewer, though, we have been given clues that something more is going on. While Frank is at work that day, April tries to use an at home abortion kit. After bring rushed to the hospital, April dies of blood loss. Throughout this film, we see the toll that monotony can take on those that are plagued by it. Mendes does a wonderful job of almost making us fear falling into the same rut by watching what happens to Frank and April.

Aside from this movie keeping me pacing in my living room and turning out utterly depressing, Sam Mendes does an excellent job directing this movie and portraying the feelings of his characters. Living in the post-war era, many felt like they had made it through hell and back and wanted to really live life. When the real world sets in, many settled into office jobs and the comfortable suburban life. Frank and April were a prime example of this struggle between wanting a comfortable life and still having the need for adventure. The following scene is one of the best scenes in the movie. So many things happen in this scene both explicitly and implicitly that clue us in to the emotions of these characters.

At this point as you noticed, April is pregnant and Frank has decided they do not need to go to France. April has become extremely bitter. You can see in her face that she is miserable and does not mind showing it. There are several techniques Mendes uses just in this short clip that allow the viewer to come to terms with what is happening. The set up of the dinner table allows for the camera to view in with a tight shot of the key characters in this scene. Perhaps the best example is toward the end of the clip. The camera is closely focused on April. While she is being yelled at and everything around her is chaotic, she is calmly smoking a cigarette. She appears to be numb to the world around her, which seems to be the case the last half of the movie.

Mendes use of sound is wonderful in the movie. In certain scenes he would put a continuous sound in the background that made you feel like you should have been watching an action flick. I literally found myself pacing with April. It made me feel nervous, which I think is what Mendes wanted. The characters were feeling a sensation of restlessness and so was I. There was also a pretty good mise-en-scene in this movie. The scenes would either be dark and romantic when Frank and April were out somewhere or everything would be bright and perfect when they were at home. The home and the belongings in it were typical of what you would have seen in a typical 1950s home.

While the fate of these characters was most likely to the extreme of what chasing your dreams can do, I do believe this film is a good example of what happens to so many of us. We have all of these dreams, but before we know it, we have taken the comfortable route and see no way of getting out of it.