Frank and April, a married couple in the 1950s, have always seen themselves as special, different, ready and willing to live their lives based on higher ideals. So, as soon as they move into their new house on Revolutionary Road, they proudly declare their independence from the suburban inertia that surrounds them and determine never to be trapped by the social confines of their era. Yet for all their charm, beauty and irreverence, the Wheelers find themselves becoming exactly what they didn't expect: a good man with a routine job whose nerve has gone missing; a less-than-happy homemaker starving for fulfillment and passion; an American family with lost dreams, like any other. Driven to change their fates, April hatches an audacious plan to start all over again, to leave the comforts of Connecticut behind for the great unknown of Paris. But when the plan is put in motion, each spouse is pushed to extremes--one to escape whatever the cost, the other to save all that they have, no matter the compromises.

Revolutionary Road delves into our culture and materialism of our society with a stark and somewhat frightening look at how it can destroy lives and tear people apart. Frank and April should have it all, the good life so to speak, the well paying job, the beautiful suburban home, two children and the American dream so to speak. But despite what everyone craves and desires April finds all the materialism empty and hollow, she does not wish or want for the picture perfect life of a 1950’s housewife she desires for something more, something grander something different and its is destroying her from the inside. Revolutionary Road takes a look at a world that started to look at itself from the first time, a world that would lead to feminism and a want and change from the rote life that they said you should have and want. It is stark, it can be depressing and it can be very hard to escape from.

What the film make me think of was Fight Club and Edward Norton’s character feeling his existence by ordering from catalogs things he truly doesn’t need nor want. But unlike Fight Club where Norton finds and escape through violence and a world he creates there is no escape for April and Frank Wheeler. She hatches a unrealistic plan and dream to just up and movie to Paris that is her escape but they are so bound to the world they created, the American dream they were supposed to be living that the plan to up and movie to Paris is besieged with hurdles that they will likely never be able to get over. The stark truth though is that even if they do make it to Paris there is no guarantee that things will be better just different and April really never sees that. She craves so much for an escape that she doesn’t care how she gets it or at what cost.

The film takes a look at love and life and bitterness of being trapped and not fulfilling all the dreams that most people have when they are younger. That might also be why I thought of Fight Club and the line that Hollywood makes us think that some day we will be rich and famous and we are now just coming to grasp with the fact that we never will be. April dreamed of being a actress, she dreamed of an exciting and wonder filled life and she finds herself instead trapped into the world of the suburban 50’s housewife and it is slowing destroying her. Frank on the other hand has accepted his lot in life and while he hates it too he is more willing to buy into the dream and go along with it. It is April’s bitterness and her slowly rotting soul that threatens to destroy him, even after all they have been through one peaceful and American dream like breakfast cures all his ills. April and Frank are not the perfect match they thought they were like many people find out way to late in a marriage and since it’s the 1950’s there is no chance at divorce as the world has not changed enough yet.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet give amazing performances and sell the movie completely on their performances. There is not much story nor action but despite that they sell the movie and make it highly enjoyable and entertaining. The story can be a little slow and plodding at times as there really isn’t that much of a plot just lots of intrigue and melodrama followed by explosions of anger and unrest by its two main characters. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet really do make a great pair and you could easily see them married to each other. The movie brings up as many questions as it answers and that is part of the fun of the movie.

Grade: B+