Revolutionary Road

Does anyone remember Starman? Briefly: an alien comes to earth and takes the physical form of Jenny's (Karen Allen) dead husband. Being an advanced life form, he quickly absorbs functions of American life simply by watching. In one memorable instance, he is riding in the car with Jenny and as she approaches an intersection where the traffic light is turning yellow, she guns the car through before the light turns red. In a later scene, as he is driving, Starman sees the light turning yellow and he starts gunning it. In his case, of course, he is much farther from the intersection and he ends up speeding through the red light causing fender benders as cars careen, swerve, and screech. As Jenny perplexedly yells at Starman, he simply tells her, "Yellow means go faster."

If Starman saw Revolutionary Road, he would simply say, "Babies ruin everything."

Yes, there is more to Revolutionary Road than that. Though the subject of a struggling marriage is nothing new, it's always the relatable journey and characters that make watching a movie interesting. In some ways, I found myself watching this movie like a play, as a series of scenes. And that was my problem with this movie: I felt I was watching great performances of Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio (as April and Frank Wheeler) in some great scenes, not necessarily a cohesive movie. Some scenes reminded me of an exercise from my acting days where we were told to make choices that took action to "100%"--especially the scenes where Frank and April would argue to the point of playing the Marriage version of Snaps! (or Yo' Momma is...). But perhaps because we never see Frank and April as the, ostensibly, former young and happy couple, nor do we really see them as a young and happy family with their children, the weight of their complaints and cruel words don't land as hard as they could. For all the scenes we watch hammering in our heads that their lives have been put in some cruel, unhappy box, we didn't get to witness the marriage worth fighting for.

The cast as a whole, was great. Michael Shannon as the Wheelers' realtor's son who has just returned from a stay at a mental institution, yet has the voice of clarity and reason (Get it? The crazy one is the sane one here!) is a scene-stealer. And Zoe Kazan as the innocent girl in the typing pool who wises up fast is also memorable. And of course, love Kathy Bates as usual. I confess I was distracted by the cast's wide spectrum of adopting the '50s cadence--from DiCaprio gamely using the word "swell" (which elicited a few chuckles in the audience) to Dylan Baker full-on channeling William Powell from The Thin Man.

Overall, I'd give this movie a B. It's got some great moments where you can't take your eyes off the screen but you can wait to see it on DVD.