B+

DiCaprio and Winslet give great performances, Shannon steals the movie. Problem is that it's really rather predictable, none of the characters are really fleshed out and the story gets a bit repetitive.

Winslet and DiCaprio are fantastic! The supporting cast was amazing. The acting was definitely the best part of the movie, since the script, well good, was predictable at points, though never boring. It has great humor, but also deals with a lot of different topics. One of the best of the year, the only thing that could stop it is that it is a film about suburbia.

A-, number 3 for the year for me, after Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Wrestler.

Seeing this tomorrow!!!

how? when it isn't even showing in Arizona?

When it freezes over.

It's called a pre-screening, ass.

This movie is disturbingly brilliant. ****

The performances were magnificent. I can see why it's not winning a lot of awards, because it's comparable to Crash in portraying a controversial issue. Yet unlike Crash, it was subtle and magnificent. Bravo!

lol pre-screening my ass.

i swear ur reviews have as much depth as my shit.

if ur that desperate to have friends on here, at least be honest.

Since you are obviously slow:

I thought it was absolutely wonderful, and the best movie of the year. Not as great as American Beauty or Little Children, but it's definitely up there. DiCaprio, Winslet and Shannon were all magnificent and deserve Oscar wins. The end was shocking and incredibly disturbing. Absolutely loved it.

9/10 (A)

I'm glad that us movie people are liking it! The crowd I was with didn't seem to.

Also, question for everyone, were people laughing at inappropriate parts during the movie? Because it was irritating.

LOVED IT.

Favorite movie of the year by far.

More thoughts soon. A+

amazing how i'm sam mendes' biggest fan on the site yet feel this is his weakest effort to date

Sam Mendes has crafted yet another masterpiece here with Revolutionary Road, the best film of 2008 and his best work since the magnificent American Beauty. In many ways, this film can be seen as a companion piece of sorts - both tell ultimately tragic tales of suburban lifestyles gone awry. Revolutionary Road starts with a bang, introducing us to the central characters of Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) and April (Kate Winslet) as they meet each other for the first time - "love at first sight" - before immediately cutting to a wrenching scene of their married life, which is anything but perfect. The love between the two of them that once bloomed is gone, now replaced with anger and bitterness. Hope of a better life comes when the couple decides to move out of their "perfect" Connecticut home to Paris with their family. Their love once again seems to be rekindled. But as the film progresses, it becomes more and more obvious that their dreams of happiness - both in life and in marriage - are unrealistic, leading to what is easily the most haunting and powerful ending of any film this year. DiCaprio and Winslet, reunited for the first time since they played star-crossed lovers in Titanic eleven years ago, are both revelatory here - turning in career-best performances. DiCaprio enters dimensions that viewers have never before seen him in as an actor. Frank could have easily been a detestable character, but DiCaprio makes him sympathetic and ultimately quite endearing. One of his final scenes in the film is a wrenching, heartbreaking moment - one that really shows how far he's come from his teen-idol days. It's a really electrifying performance. And Kate Winslet delivers what is easily the best performance of the year - and it would be a travesty if this five-time Oscar nominee was not rewarded for her work here. Just the amount of emotion she can express from a sheer facial expression is stunning, she transforms into the tragic figure of April Wheeler with every gesture and every movement she makes. You feel for her every step of the way and by the end of the film the performance actually becomes quite chilling. The strength of her performance really takes this movie to a whole other level - and one doesn't need to look further than her final scene in the film for any evidence of that. The pair has a fantastic and authentic-seeming chemistry, and the marriage between them at times feels so realistic that it's almost intrusive. The fights between them are fiery and beyond intense, but during the more tender moments of the film they really make it obvious how conflicted these characters are about their feelings towards one another. This is really a two-person show, but the supporting cast is certainly game. Best is Michael Shannon as the only character who can see past the suburban-life delusion. The direction from Sam Mendes is breathtaking and another reason this film is ultimately so successful. The atmosphere he has created is really fantastic - everything adds to the overall experience, from the exquisite art direction and lighting to the balanced mix of shots - it fits perfectly with the themes of the film. The film has a certain feel to it that made me think it would work just as well as a play - it has a theatrical quality that is just hard to describe. The musical score from Thomas Newman is fantastic and will surely be underrated. Newman's work on American Beauty is one of my favorite scores ever, and this will undoubtedly be compared to that, but both are unique in their own way and prove to be pivotal to the film as a whole. I can't imagine some scenes being as effective as they were here without his compositions. The screenplay by Justin Haythe is full of honest and crackling dialogue that is always intense and fascinating to watch unfold, and both Frank and April are richly developed and flawed characters that the audience can both understand and identify with. There's really not much else I can say about this film. It's a complete and utter masterpiece - compelling, emotionally devastating, visually stunning, everything a brilliant drama should be. And it serves as further proof that Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the finest actors of his generation - if not the finest. And Kate Winslet, well, she's on a whole other level entirely. Do not miss this one. A+ (#1 film of 2008)

I didn't think it was, though it obviously wasn't his best (American Beauty will probably ALWAYS be my favorite movie of all time. I can't see a film ever passing it).

And I actually had a friend download the DVD screener and burn it onto a DVD for me. I didn't want to wait any longer. I'm obviously going to be seeing it when it hits theaters in my area though.

Does anyone know RR expansion plans? I have looked all over online and can't seem to find any set dates and places for its expansion... I really want to see this before i have to publish my top ten come Jan. 18!

It expanded to 38 theaters today, and will be slowly expanding every weekend afterwards until the 23rd, when it will go wide.

Great, Thanks! I reallllly hope it gets to Reno on the 16!

winslet was perfect, leo was not so good, the score was awful, and the movie was average.

I guess it's a good thing that it made me want to read the book...hm. the film completely falls to pieces though in its structural focus on leo's character, ironically becoming a manifestation of its own criticisms, and fails at characterizing winslet's April fully enough to justify the movie's conclusion. thankfully, kate is wonderful enough that we do get some sense of her character's progression just in her mannerisms, but the screenplay really wasn't there. so yeah, the script's prejudiced focus does not lend us enough to feel the film's impact. I will disagree, however, with the criticism that this is just another suburbia ennui mope, as it's really more of a setting than the point of the film.

about leo...he was miscast. his character acts like a child. he looks like a child. unfortunately, the combination of the two allows us to sympathize with his character, lending him "a boyish charm," rather than a selfish, childlike quality too often. also, his cursory, perfunctory interpretation of the character might have been fine next to any other actress, but with Kate's always incredibly well though out, penetrating acting chops, he looked very amateur.

it did start off very strong though...I loved the first couple of scenes very much.
without reading the novel, I think I can say the film presents only a barely-there sketch of its depths, and, although the film clearly has insights, they are presented too shallowly to connect with the viewer. the very last moment of the film also (suspiciously?) occurred in last year's "The Savages," but the effectiveness with which the moment hit in The Savages compared to that impact of Road embodies perfectly the film's failure to rise to full-founded work, instead remaining merely a sketch of a movie.

kate saves this baby.

i felt leo was far superior to winslet in the film. she was too one note while leo had to show a range of emotion

I don't think the very last scene in the film was meant to be poignant.

I really liked it. Top 10 material for the year for sure, and already extremely underrated. Both Kate and Leo have never been better.

A-

The actors MAKE this movie. Without this brilliant cast, it would have been a very hollow film. The film as a whole wasn't terrific. In particular, the script needed a bit of work, as some lines felt a little out of place or awkwardly placed within the script, presumably because of editing from the original novel to script format. But I'm not going to get into that right now. It is the acting on which I wish to focus, because it was so excellent.

Leo DiCaprio is really good at the build up - especially in the final husband-wife fight scene in which he just utterly breaks down. You can see just how childish Frank is, and just how angry he can get; but you also see just how hurt he has been. April tells Frank that she no longer loves him, that she hates him, and then screams when he tries to touch her. And he is devastated. How could she hate him?

Kate Winslet pushes DiCaprio to this moment, and she is brilliant in this film. She manages to emote so much with very little and without going overboard. Her moment on the phone when speaking to the babysitter is phenomenal. She becomes so emotional without even saying much of anything. Her emotions become so uncontrollable that she is unable to speak to her children or the babysitter, and she is dying to hang up the phone before she spills it all out.

Kathy Bates is yet another gem in this film as Mrs. Helen Givings. She perfectly emulates the typical suburban housewife persona, while still portraying a caring soul hidden behind the housewife role, behind the makeup and behind the usual fake chit chat between herself and April. You really get a sense of her character when she is speaking to April about her mentally ill son, one of the few moments when Mrs. Givings can be seen to be talking 'real' and less the scripted life of a suburbanite.

Finally, Michael Shannon is wonderful as John Givings. He teeters the line well between being mentally ill and being the voice of wisdom in the film. His character is necessarily deceiving. He seems to make so much sense, and yet he has been branded as mentally ill. How should we be taking his opinion in the film? Frank tells April that what he says can't be the truth because he is insane. But as April questions, what does that even mean?

I was mesmerized by four very strong performances, especially from Kate and Leo. Whenever these two are on screen together, the film is captivating. They are the backbone of the film, and they make all of the heavy, emotional, and sometimes controversial scenes work without being overbearing.

Frankly, I was surprised to see just how controversial this movie is. It deals with abortion in a raw and particular way which I've never encountered in a film before. The film also touches on gender roles, mostly from April Wheeler's character who challenges them.

In the end, this film feels like an intimate live theatre experience. The actors make the characters so much more than their lines. Kate and Leo both deliver career defining performances, in my opinion. They've come a long way since Titanic, and I'm so proud of them both.

Peace,
Mike

fine fine. replace poignant and humorous with effective, and Revolutionary Road still fails.

B-

The film reminds me why i dislike American Beauty (and by extension, the rest of Mendes' work). This feels contrived in everyway. the performances are fine (Winslet outstaged DiCaprio, IMO).

It's also neither thought-provoking nor relevant.

But I agree with MikeQ, it's the performances that make this movie.