About.com Rating

Winslet and DiCaprio Star in a Thought-Provoking Period Drama

Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio give superb performances as a troubled married couple with children in Revolutionary Road (2008), a cautionary tale of conformity and alienation directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty). The story has half a dozen memorable minor characters, well played by actors with roots in the New York stage world. Beautifully shot by noted cinematographer Roger Deakins, the film was nominated for three Academy Awards: Art Direction, Costume Design and Best Supporting Actor (Michael Shannon).


The story is set in 1955, and the Wheelers, Frank (DiCaprio) and April (Winslet), are pursuing a suburban lifestyle that was fairly new at the time. Frank works at the Manhattan headquarters of a big office-machines company, while April is a homemaker who takes care of their two kids at the Wheeler's pleasant house in the Connecticut suburbs. But Frank hates his job, April feels unfulfilled, and the Wheelers are suffocating. Then one day April comes up with an idea for dealing with their problems: they'll move to Paris, where she'll work while Frank figures out what he wants to do with his life. But the Wheelers bump into a number of obstacles as they wrestle with a series of decisions, leading to tragedy.

Revolutionary Road is not a film for everyone. Its sensibility is closer to that of a London or Broadway play than to a contemporary mainstream Hollywood movie. It tells a bleak story, although one that many will find cathartic. If nothing else, the film brilliantly evokes the underside of Eisenhower America, showing what led to the hippie counterculture.

Making-Of, Deleted Scenes, Audio Commentary

The DVD contains a reasonably good documentary "Lives of Quiet Desperation: The Making of Revolutionary Road." ("Lives of quiet desperation" is an oft-quoted phrase from Thoreau's Walden.) According to the making-of, Winslet was the driving force in getting the movie made. She costarred opposite DiCaprio in the blockbuster Titanic (1997), and she is married to director Sam Mendes. Winslet and Mendes have one child, and she has another from a previous marriage.

Also, the DVD has five deleted scenes with a total runtime of just under 10 minutes. You can watch these with or without audio commentary by the director and the screenwriter. A good deleted scene is "Birthday," in which Frank Wheeler nostalgically reminisces to neighbors about an interesting incident in his life, only to be put down by April because he told them the same story a year earlier. Another deleted scene worth watching is "Nothing's Permanent," a flashback to the first time Frank and April saw their suburban house, which at first seems to them a dream come true, but ultimately turns out to feel like a prison.

Finally, the DVD provides an informative, though often dull, feature-length audio commentary, mostly by director Mendes, but with substantial input from screenwriter Justin Haythe. The film is a generally faithful adaptation of a great 1961 novel by Richard Yates, and comparisons with the source material is a key subject for the commentators. The novel focuses more on Frank, while the movie treats Frank and April equally. Also, the film is less bitter and less downbeat than the book.

DVD Details

Below I have listed all the details for the DVD containing Revolutionary Road.

Release Date: June 2, 2009
Feature Film Runtime: 1 hour 59 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for Language and Some Sexual Content/Nudity
Widescreen (2.35:1), Color
English Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish-Dubbed Soundtrack
French-Dubbed Soundtrack
English Subtitles
Spanish Subtitles
French Subtitles
Audio Commentary by Director and Screenwriter
Making-Of Documentary (29 min.)
Deleted Scenes (5 scenes with total runtime = 10 min.)