Revolutionary Road

Has anyone else seen this movie or read the book? I don't want to give away any important plot turns for those who haven't seen it, but I will say that Kate Winslet's character is desperately sick of living as a cookie cutter housewife and mother in her suburban neighborhood. In one scene, while trying to convince her husband to move themselves and their two kids to Paris so that she and the mister can regain excitement and fulfillment in their lives, she says that, "We moved here because I was pregnant and then we had the next one to prove that the first one wasn't a mistake!"

The acting is first rate and the script is great as well. The breeder characters are so predictable, but they're also chillingly realistic. And I always find it interesting when a pre-Feminine Mystique woman, even if she's fictional, boldly speaks out against the boredom and waste of being a June Cleaver. Leonardo DiCaprio's character, on the other hand, is the one who stubbornly pushes for a lifetime of McMansions and Polaroid moments while being anything but the ideal family man. In the first few minutes of the film, we see him charm a young secretary at his workplace into leaving the office early so that he can get her drunk and bed her before going home to his wife and two children, who are waiting for him with a surprise cake to celebrate his birthday. Like I said - realistic!

It's a good movie, but disturbing. I'd like to read the novel.

(Added that one to list of movies I should watch.=3)

Yes you are right -- it's a painful story about a couple who are slowly and inexorably suffocating in their 'domestic paradise'.

I haven't seen the film -- it's Leo I don't like, he and his butt-like face.

I read the novel a few years ago. It's bleak. It's about how playing the life script can run you, on rails, to psychosis. It's very realistic in the way that the facade they can barely manage to maintain is hugely encouraged by everyone they know in that suburban purgatory. It's also very realistic in the way that the children are, well, just children -- they are merely a couple of 'someone elses' to the parents because frankly that's the way life really is. Kids are just 'someone else' and that's all they really ever are when you boil it all down.

That much is obvious from the novel's synposis and film trailer, so I'm not giving things away!

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"The death of creativity is a pram in the hallway"
- Cyril Connolly

I'm glad you mentioned it, Guest; it sounds like something I'd be interested in seeing, whereas before I hadn't paid attention.

Speaking of family-themed movies, another one that DH and I are anxious to see is Coraline. The sheer level of diverse talent and imagination you can see on the Coraline website is jaw-dropping.

I'll look for Rev. Road in our local theater; thanks!

The only guy who makes some sense is the crazy one. I don't like Leo either, but he is surprizing, especially when it all collapses and he loses his marbles.

Many of our coworkers and some friends have watched the movie, and they have made comments that they left the movie feeling depressed about life.
I will read the book and then maybe watch the movie, I am not really a big movie fan.

I did watch the trailers and I am thankful I am not living in "domestic bliss' I would OD on Flintstones vitamins and vodka, if I were.

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I bought the book. I am on chapter 5 and liking it.I had trouble putting the book down, but lunch was over.

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I saw Revolutionary Road a couple of weeks ago. Acting was really good and I thought it made more of the movie than what it was. Kathy Bates was excellent. The tone of the movie, though, is pretty somber. We never really get to see the characters being happy for more than a few minutes.

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- The human gene pool could use a little chlorine