I can accept someone not enjoying this. Calling it hilariously bad/mockable/etc. is so moronic that it's hilarious in itself to even say something like that.

But it was totally all those things. We were certainly laughing at something.

The way Mendes shoots the abortion scene I was certain he wanted us to laugh. No foolin'

I actually like this film, but he is absolutely right about the bottom line. If mendes wasn't intentionally fucking with us and just trying to make us burst out laughing at this scene I will eat my hat.

The humorous aspect of this film was identified very soon after it's release in this thread...

The ABORTION scene? HILARIOUS?

This movie is not supposed to be humorous. There are a few points where I chuckled early on, but the final half hour or so is gravely serious, disturbing and depressing.

Yeah, you're right, Mendes threw a wet blanket on the laughs with that one - - with a good rewrite, it coulda been funny all the way through...

The grave seriousness of most of the picture is where the laughs come from. Mendes doesn't let the picture breathe; everything feels schematic and humorless. So, when faced with awkward dialogue and oppressively obvious directorial choices we have no choice but to snicker. It's like laughing in church; you can't stop.

I don't agree with this over the whole film, but the last half hour, yeah pretty much. His obsession with being gravely melodramatic is even more palpable and even laughable than Hardwickes in Twilight. This film started out with a lot of potential and its attempt to mock ordinary people and allow its characters to be something different was admirable. But it all fell flat with the confused final message and the horrifically somber tone.
Therefore, it became funny.

The whole film felt like a very straight-faced parody of every bad suburban cliche since the book was written. Few stories can get away with that shit. There's a reason so many great dramas are really pitch-black comedies.

A+

Kate Winslet gave the performance of the decade and no Leo wasn't on the same level, while good he just wasnt good enough.

Kate was terrific. Better than in The Reader, IMO. But Little Children is a better movie .

like yoshue i found this movie to be so bad that i decided to watch it as a comedy at about the 30 minute mark. some of the dialogue really made me crack up:


"If being crazy means living life as it matters then I don’t care if we are completely insane"


"Our whole existence here is based on this great premise that we’re... special...and superior to the whole thing. But we're not. We’re just like everyone else. Look at us! We’ve bought into the same ridiculous delusion"


the abortion scene at the end was so hysterical that it must be some parody of similar scenes in bergmans cries and whispers or hanekes die klavierspielerin (the static, spying camera positioned outside of the room during the act reminded me of haneke), and you can also easily predict it an hour before it happens. i predicted some kind of genital mutilation which would have been even better and funnier, but the abortion was hysterical enough. i dont know if the whole movie is meant to be some kind of parody or if mendes really intended this to be an important drama. either way, mendes who usually directs boring drivel (his by-the-numbers bondmovie being the latest example) has reached a point with this movie where i could somehow enjoy its badness because this is so batshit-insanely bad.

Just no at all of this.

Revolutionary Road

Terrific film. Really powerful drama about life, and ambition, and growing up, and "the real world", and dated expectations. I loved it, and Leonardo DiCaprio is sensational even though yet again he just plays himself - but who's complaining?! Kate Winslet was good, and they obviously have a special dynamic together, but I felt April could (not should) have been played by another actress. It was just her accent kept going from light American to Home County English. But other than that she was superb. And Shannon was startlingly hilarious. The beautiful score by Thomas Newman stretches far and beholds such meaning. And Deakins' cinematography adds a perspective to little miss suburbia and mid-shot city guy in 50s America that helped the film stand out. Mendes did a fine job with Revolutionary Road. It slots snugly into his fine oeuvre.

A-

This is an all-timer for me. And agreed on Newman's score. It's so gorgeous.