Revolutionary Road

It's the 1950's, Frank and April Wheeler, but we’ll call them Leo and Kate, are living the American dream in a nice suburb somewhere on Revolutionary Road. Everything seems great on the outside, but in reality neither is happy. Kate wanted to be an actress but she was crap at it so she became a housewife instead. Leo hates his office job but has no idea what else he could do instead. Leo at least livens up his dreary day by takes a dip in the typing pool but Kate, stuck at home, just becomes the bored housewife from hell and quivers that bottom lip, which has been cut and pasted from ‘The Reader’. Other than that, not much happens. It's rumoured they had kids but you only see them a couple of times, I think they got taken into care. It's perhaps all true to life but it makes odd cinema and it’s hard to feel sorry for either of them.



Then Kate suggests that they move to Paris, just because they can. They don’t have to be like everyone else in the suburbs. They can escape their rut of repetition and have a life instead. She'll work as a secretary for one of the big organizations whilst Leo becomes a kept man so that he can find himself. A good offer but Leo’s a bit sceptical, after all what's life without the typing pool, but Kate quivers that lip and talks him round.



Cue a few minutes of bliss and Leo even jumps her in the kitchen but it's probably not the best eighteen seconds (approx) of her life. Then it all falls apart, it's a costly eighteen seconds as Kate falls pregnant and Leo gets offered a, too good to turn down, promotion at work. The lip quivers some more and their relationship deteriorates. Of course had this film been set in the modern day, Kate would have just taken the boat tickets, the kids and gone.

Poor old Kate, looking a bit haggard I'm afraid, can't even get a decent shag. In frustration she indulges her neighbour Shep (get down boy) who has been panting after her even since they moved in. He takes his chance after Kate's had one too many one night but he can't even match up to Leo's standards.



Kate decides she wants rid of the baby and when the smoking and drinking heavily during pregnancy fails to work, she goes for the DIY home abortion kit instead. At the end you hope Kate is going to shoot herself, in fact you hope she shoots Leo first then herself but no, the abortion goes wrong and she bleeds to death. After Kate dies Leo is shown running down the street, presumably to the nearest bridge to throw himself off but that doesn't happen either. Depressing - yes, but nowhere near depressing enough.

Michael Shannon, steals the film as John, the mentally 'ill' neighbour who's been through the electric shock treatment. He tells it how it is and unsubtly hammers home the message but does it with panache. He was Oscar nominated for the role, where he lost out to that dead guy.

I have to say that my partner loved the film but then she's read the book, I got the impression that a lot of useful background information was missing, including all the character development. The film opens when Kate and Leo meet at a party and you are left to assume they actually liked each other at this point. Then almost immediately the film fast forwards seven years to when they hate each other. Cue lots of yelling and screaming. Whether this was a progressive falling out or whether they just woke up one day and smelt the coffee, I don't know, we’re not told. There are a couple of short flashbacks but any others must have ended up on the cutting room floor.



It's a very pretty, well made film but I can't help feeling it was just a vehicle for Kate and Leo. I think the story got lost somewhere along the way.