Revolutionary Road = best movie of the year???

There's a three-way slugfest going on in my cabeza right now....a no-holds barred, all-parties-equally-qualified bout to see which film will emerge as my personal Best Movie of 2008. The contenders: Slumdog Millionaire, The Dark Knight, and, now, Revolutionary Road.

Just got back from the third, and man, what a knockout of emotions. Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet, reuniting for the first time since Titanic and both giving arguably the best performances of their respective careers. In a film that demands nothing but their most intense, draining, and verbal-head-butting chops. It's pretty late, so I'm saving the too-wordy reactions for a later date. But I'm still feeling compelled to say somethings about the damn-good Revolutionary Road.



First off, I must divulge: I was expecting this one to disappoint. Sure, the pedigree was all present (Dicaprio, Winslet, and Winslet's husband/talented director Sam Mendes, back in his familiar American Beauty territory of suburban strife here), but there's been one glaring elephant-in-the-space, and that's just how much I love(d) the Richard Yates novel this film is based on, and pretty much remains more-than-faithful to throughout. I honestly can't recall the last book-to-film adaptation where the movie version trumped the tome, and I was skeptical that this one could buck that trend.

The verdict: it didn't buck the trend, but not for lack of superiority or tried and true efforts. It's just that, the Yates text is so layered with inner dialogues and slow, revelatory character kinks and back-flushing that it'd be creatively impossible to transfer every last narrative morsel to the big screen. So what Mendes has ultimately done here is quite admirable, in that sense. I really missed certain elements (why aren't the Wheelers' kids more visible and utilized in the film, as they are in the book?....Why doesn't the film show the aftermath of Frank's affair with the young, naive secretary at his office, like Yates so wonderfully did?). Nitpicks, though, because the film held me captive and floored me in ways that rivaled the book at times, and left me reeled in the end.

Namely because of the performances from Dicaprio and Winslet, like I hinted at above. The scenes where they (as a married suburban couple in 1955-era Connecticut, who live ideal lives but both secretly strive for better things, bigger dreams, and their longing for true happiness is what inevitably crumbles their world) go toe-to-toe are some of the most riveting I've seen this year, if not even before January '08. Particularly the moment when their mounting-insanities and off-the-rocker anger tip the scales past the points of zero return. Dicaprio plays it with a real "tried to keep calm, but now I'm exploding," while Winslet is pure "bubbling anxiety and discontent, imploding into a quiet storm."


A rare genuinely-happy moment for Frank and April Wheeler.

And then there's the brief but two-scene-stealing work from Michael Shannon, as a mental patient son of the Wheelers' realtor who isn't fooled by their false happiness, and repeatedly calls their true colors out to shine. Shannon wowed me in the little-seen but much-slept-on Bug, and here he gives a ticking timebomb turn that reminded me of Heath Ledger's Joker in ways. I wish his character had more screen time here; its one trait from the book I would've encouraged Mendes to elaborate on, the presense of Shannon's "John" into a bigger role. But, still all good.


Michael Shannon....could be the best in the game at playing "subtle craziness."

Revolutionary Road is a real downer, but the reason it devastates more than 99% of horror films and disturbs more than any pristine psychological thrill ride is because its scares, shocks, eye-grabbing drama, and bleak sadness come from relatable, everyday-people places. What married couple doesn't go through their moments of "Why did I marry this person?" "I wish I could change everything, restart my life and be happier." The uphill climb for true inner peace is something that very few successfully complete, very few conclude by having reached their highest goals/dreams. And watching those aspirations disintegrate as a result of the casual, misjudged choices somebody has made, is tough stuff.

And that's what the story of Revolutionary Road represents to me, and I'm glad to say that this film spin is a triumph. Its a testament to what Mendes and crew have done here to say that, when the moments from the book that put me through the heaviest ringers popped up in the film, I was just as enamored watching as I once was reading. That's really sayin' somethin'.