Revolutionary Road
I feel bad that my review for “Revolutionary Road” may end up shorter than for “Spectre”, because ultimately, “Revolutionary Road” is a million times better. To be fair, you can’t really compare those two films because they aim at completely different things and are literally more different than apples and pears could ever be, but if I had the choice, I would choose the character drama of “Revolutionary Road” any day.
It feels ironic to me that I am seeing this film now, because I have had an interest in it ever since it came out. Now, some 7 years later, my life is completely different and in more than one way I am able to relate to the characters in the story. In these years, I made decisions for my life – and it is not only mine now – and sometimes, I am second-guessing these decisions. However, after years of fearing that watching “Revolutionary Road” would be depressing (for the same reason I never watched “Lilja 4-ever” either), I am now strangely feeling a certain comfort in thinking about the film. For the first few hours after my viewing I did have those “oh man, we turned out just like them!” kind of feelings, but the truth is, I have never been as dissatisfied as the Wheelers in the story have been, not even remotely. There are similar feelings sometimes, but I am lucky to have accomplished more than they have (I pride myself in my memories of inspiring travels in the past) while feeling less of a need to lead some sort of extraordinary life. Of course, people in movies are always more dramatic than in real life and the ending in “Revolutionary Road” is a perfect example for that. (Just like how in every controversial film or soap opera in China seems to have an abortion going on.) Nevertheless, in this case the slightly exaggerated drama was surprisingly comforting to me.
Apart from that, I remember that I described the film as “Mad Men but better”. It gives off the vibe of that time, perhaps less so than “Far from Heaven”, but I think it wonderfully captures the struggle people might have in the superficial idyll of suburbia and the strict expectations of society which results in April’s perpetually impeccable hair, even on the last day. It’s like “Far from Heaven” and “Revolutionary Road” paved the way for “Mad Men”‘s success (though to be fair, “Mad Men” actually started airing in 2007), but there is definitely a heightened interest in all things vintage, and I am definitely taking part of in that enthusiasm, though I much prefer the darkness of “Revolutionary Road” and “Man Men” than the shiny magazines propagating a distorted and politically rather questionable vintage lifestyle. I know that “Breaking Bad”, “Mad Men” and “House of Cards” are trying to teach you not to be like Walter White, Don Draper and Frank Underwood, yet people dream of it anyways. This is how contradictory we are, because I too am actually quite drawn towards April’s outwardly perfect styling. What makes the film great, besides the dark setting, is its dialogue in which Frank and April play out every gender cliché possible, including the one where she cannot get over her dissatisfaction with life and he proposes that she should see a shrink.
Finally, the ending actually felt strangely peaceful. April died peacefully, at least that is how it looks like on screen, and instead of Frank going all crazy, he becomes a loving family man whose kids seem to adore him.
Surprisingly, I have seen every single Sam Mendes movie except for “Away we go”. Without ever having paid much attention to him, I actually like a good chunk of his work, so perhaps he should actually be added to my directors list.