Thinking about getting married, are ya? Then might I suggest you turn right back around and trade that ticket to Revolutionary Road in for something more hopeful and uplifting? My Bloody Valentine, perhaps? This flick will scare the pants off of certain people far more than any pickaxe wielding serial killer ever could.
Kate Winslet and Leo Dicaprio reunite for the first time since Titanic, and for me personally I found it an odd quasi sequel of sorts...if the Leo guy had lived, that is. He plays Frank Wheeler, a formerly interesting guy who used to travel the world and do interesting things. Kate plays his wife, April. The two met at a party, and were married soon after. The two say they have all these dreams. Dreams of being different. They think they are special. They don't want to be like all these bored, boring, run of the mill couples, mowing the grass on Saturday and playing Bridge on Thursdays. They don't want to become average. Well, when April becomes pregnant, the responsbilities start to mount. They buy a nice but boring house in a suburb. Frank lands a decent, boring, soul crushing job as a salesman of sorts. And April quietly resigns herself to a life of raising kids and cooking meals.
But this life, that 1950's society has tried to show is the one true happy life, is all a facade. April isn't content with her role. She wants to travel the world, do things, and maybe even earn a living of her own. Frank wants much the same thing, but his obligations far outweigh his own desires. Or do they? Frank and April's marriage begins to implode, as both realize that they are no better than those boring couples they used to denigrate when everything seemed so hopeful in the beginning.
I loved this movie. I really dig movies about bad, unlovable people who never seem to realize just how awful they are(see 2004's Closer for my favorite of these films). And don't get me wrong, these are not good people. They are two of the phoniest people ever portrayed on film. April, who once proclaims that Frank is "the most interesting person she ever met", and it's so obviously a lie. He's probably the most interesting person who ever showed her any interest, considering she's done exactly nothing with her own life. In fact, we know nothing of her life before Frank, and she never actually acknowledges her life before meeting him. Frank, for all his talk of big dreams and ideas, when presented with real opportunity to pursue them, never has the stones to go through with it, and it's a wonder whether he actually has dreams or if he just says those things to seem like a better man than he really is. These two are trapped in cages of their own making, and despite all the whining they have no true desire to get out.
It's no wonder, that when the neighbor's "mentally unstable" son, John, meets them he rips them to shreds with his words. John isn't really ill, or atleast I don't think so. He was probably just a guy, much like Frank and April, who dared to live outside of what society thought was the standard, and was put away for it. He sees right through these two, and puts it all out on the table for these two to see. I can see why Michael Shannon has been nominated for his performance here. Much like Penelope Cruz in Vicky Christina Barcelona, he literally turns this movie upside down everytime he's on screen.
If I had seen this movie a couple of weeks ago, it probably would've cracked my top 10 for '08. Winslet and Dicaprio put in typically strong work. There's just something about the two of them that they have such remarkable chemistry, even when their characters are openly despising one another. My only beef would be with the score, which for some reason director Sam Mendes felt needed to be overbearing, drowning out every friggin' scene. With two actors like this, the music does not need to forcefeed what we are supposed to be feeling. And apparently what we are supposed to be feeling is undeniable disgust at these two pathetic human beings. I'd say they more than succeeded.
8/10
