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Twelve years after their love sank a ship in the all-conquering Titanic, Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet finally find themselves sharing the frame again in Revolutionary Road. Some will probably see it just hoping for more of the Leo/Kate magic, but they'll leave the cinema in a state of shellshock: in terms of the relationship, this is Titanic in reverse. The film starts with a very brief scene depicting how the central couple, Frank and April Wheeler, first met, before skipping the majority of the happy times and resuming at the point where they are stuck in a downward spiral of 1950s suburban misery. There are moments of romance between the couple, but they are few and far between in a film that is overwhelmingly downbeat and dour. Such emotionally wrought material does give plenty of juicy material for the actors, though, and both leads are excellent, even if neither character is remotely endearing.
For Winslet this is the first time she has been directed by her husband Sam Mendes (and with the intensely depressing subject matter, the Mendes-Winslet household was presumably not the most comfortable place to be during the period of filming). The newly Oscar-winning actress - not for this film, it must be added - tackles the difficult part with commendable gusto, and if she occasionally seems to over-enunciate with a slightly shaky American accent, it's only a small grumble. For Mendes, this is a return of sorts to familiar territory; he memorably skewered contemporary American suburbia in his debut film, American Beauty, and promptly won an Oscar for it. However, the five-decade shift in period is not the only difference between the two films: whereas American Beauty was a pitch-black satirical comedy, Revolutionary Road is a completely straight dramatic tragedy which is more likely to induce squirms than chuckles.
The main problem with the film is not, however, that it fails to be a barrel of laughs; it was never going to be, and if that's what Mendes wanted to make he would have steered well clear of Richard Yates' 1961 novel from which this is adapted. What the film should do is engross, albeit in a rather morbid way, and at this task the film does sometimes falter. There's a generally slow pace and a lack of empathy with the characters, making it one of those films more likely to command respect than true enjoyment. The absence of one of Mendes' most important collaborators on American Beauty is also felt: legendary director of photography Conrad L. Hall, who died in 2003. While his replacement is no slouch - Roger Deakins is unquestionably one of the best in the business right now - there's a strange flatness to the cinematography here. While the muted tones and unfussy framing do seem to fit the subject matter, the lack of visual sparkle is nevertheless disappointing.
The summary
Revolutionary Road certainly puts his characters through the emotional wringer but audiences are likely to remain mostly unmoved. Assured, if not anything more.
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