"Revolutionary Road" (2008 - DiCaprio, Winslet)

[Grayscale]

"It's 1955. Frank and April Wheeler, in the seventh year of their marriage, have fallen into a life that appears to most as being perfect. They live in the Connecticut suburbs with two young children. Frank commutes to New York City where he works in an office job while April stays at home as a housewife. But they're not happy. April has forgone her dream of becoming an actress, and Frank hates his job - one where he places little effort - although he has never figured out what his passion in life is. One day, April suggests that they move to Paris - a city where Frank visited during the war and loved, but where April has never been - as a means to rejuvenate their life. April's plan: she would be the breadwinner, getting a lucrative secretarial job for one of the major international organizations, while Frank would have free time to find himself and whatever his passion. Initially skeptical, Frank ultimately agrees to April's plan. When circumstances change around the Wheelers, April decides she will do whatever she has to to get herself out of her unhappy existence."


I have mixed feelings about this movie... the acting was impressive and highly compelling, the story was thought-provoking, and the directing was solid, but i hated it. actually, i considered leaving before it was over.

on one hand, it has everything a well-made movie should, and I am not surprised by its award nominations, but i have to ask: we have enough examples of human suffering, why do we need another? for such a culmination of quality and polish, it still manages to leave a bad taste in your mouth. 4.5/5 "on paper"

 

[Synarch]

Suffering moves us. It can settle the unsettled and unsettle the settled.

 

[Ivy]

Scribbling that one in my "quotes to remember" notebook (which doesn't exist, but probably should).

I really want to see this movie. My husband hates these kinds of movies; he says they give him ulcers. But for some reason I almost find it comforting, although of course I always cry and feel sadness for the characters and wail and gnash my teeth and all that good stuff. For me I guess it's a way to connect to universal human experiences. Sometimes I just get a hankering for a strong feeling, even if it's negative. I sort of classify it in the same column as my former obsession with giving birth in the caveman fashion so that I could feel the same feelings women have felt for millions of years.

 

[Synarch]

Scribbling that one in my "quotes to remember" notebook (which doesn't exist, but probably should).

I really want to see this movie. My husband hates these kinds of movies; he says they give him ulcers. But for some reason I almost find it comforting, although of course I always cry and feel sadness for the characters and wail and gnash my teeth and all that good stuff. For me I guess it's a way to connect to universal human experiences. Sometimes I just get a hankering for a strong feeling, even if it's negative. I sort of classify it in the same column as my former obsession with giving birth in the caveman fashion so that I could feel the same feelings women have felt for millions of years.

The Greeks called it catharsis.

Sometimes people fear feeling, to avoid the way it overwhelms rational thought, which I think is why some people do not like dipping themselves into pathos projected onto a screen in the dark. It can be a bit like having someone reach into your heart and give it a squeeze.

 

[SillySapienne]

Quotes that I jotted down while watching the movie...

"I want to feel things, really feel things. How's that for an ambition"

"It takes backbone to lead the life you want, Frank."

"No one forgets the truth, Frank, they just get better at lying."

The movie was depressing, yes, but it was a cautionary tale, a mirror held out for us to see ourselves. And, ultimately, the message it conveyed is inspiring; stay true to yourself and the things and people you love, for your happiness, and life's meaning is inevitably contingent upon your ability and willingness to do this.

 

[Synarch]

This is the one movie I have been looking forward to seeing all year. I love everything about it. I need to see if it's out in my area yet. If so, I will see it tonight.

The challenge of feeling. How do you give yourself to it while staying strong? How do you endure and process pain while staying limber enough for joy?

 

[Grayscale]

i understand the value of tragedies and i wont disagree that the message was good, but my frustration lies with how the characters managed to screw up so royally and weren't able to appreciate what they had. also, i was disgusted by the suggestion that married with kids has to turn into shattered dreams, infidelity, and an abortion gone wrong because humans have a problem finding our place in the world. arguably, they had a decent life, the manner in which it fell apart seemed excessive to me. there are sad stories and then there is sadness just for the sake of it, in my opinion this falls into the latter category.

 

[heart]

I liked this plotline far better when it was "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit".

 

[SillySapienne]

Gah, NOOOOOOOOO!!!

Frank worked the exact job he swore to himself he would never, ever do!!!

He became the father he once despised, and he settled for mediocrity for the sake of security.

Revolutionary Road - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

When DeWitt Henry and Geoffrey Clark interviewed Yates for the Winter, 1972 issue of Ploughshares, Yates detailed the title's subtext:

“ I think I meant it more as an indictment of American life in the 1950s. Because during the Fifties there was a general lust for conformity all over this country, by no means only in the suburbs — a kind of blind, desperate clinging to safety and security at any price, as exemplified politically in the Eisenhower administration and the Joe McCarthy witchhunts. Anyway, a great many Americans were deeply disturbed by all that — felt it to be an outright betrayal of our best and bravest revolutionary spirit — and that was the spirit I tried to embody in the character of April Wheeler. I meant the title to suggest that the revolutionary road of 1776 had come to something very much like a dead end in the Fifties.[

 

[Giggly]

Interesting. I haven't seen the movie or read the book, but just reading wiki and the comments in this thread, it seems like both the husband and the wife were forced into being a breadwinner and housewife respectively by social convention alone, but not by passion. In other words, neither of them really wanted to do what they were doing, and predictably, the woman sought to break out of those roles when she thought she could and tragedy ensued. Very sad.

I say that no one should be forced into a certain role if they don't really feel a strong drive towards that. They'll only be resentful and dispassionate on a daily basis and possibly seek to escape that role later when conditions are not favorable to do so. Luckily, we live in a time where people have a choice now.

 

[Grayscale]

I liked this plotline far better when it was "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit".

sounds familiar but i haven't seen it... ill add it to my list of movies to watch.

 

[heart]

Interesting. I haven't seen the movie or read the book, but just reading wiki and the comments in this thread, it seems like both the husband and the wife were forced into being a breadwinner and housewife respectively by social convention alone, but not by passion. In other words, neither of them really wanted to do what they were doing, and predictably, the woman sought to break out of those roles when she thought she could and tragedy ensued. Very sad.

I say that no one should be forced into a certain role if they don't really feel a strong drive towards that. They'll only be resentful and dispassionate on a daily basis and possibly seek to escape that role later when conditions are not favorable to do so. Luckily, we live in a time where people have a choice now.

Well now some people are made to feel bad if they want the traditional scene.

 

[Giggly]

Well now some people are made to feel bad if they want the traditional scene.

True.

 

[lowtech redneck]

Meh. I'm not particularly excited about RR; its yet another movie about the supposedly soul-crushing distopia that is suburbia, starring characters without any apparent redeeming characteristics, bitching because their lives are not perfect. Next.

 

[Synarch]

Saw it tonight. Nothing special. This is the same problem I had with the last two piece of shit movies I saw: The Wrestler and Benjamin Buttons. High expectations and then just bullshit. Last good movie I saw was "Let the Right One In".

 

[The Ü™]

Is this movie American Titanic or Titanic Beauty?

Or maybe Road to Titanic?

Benjamin Button was far more revolutionary than Revolutionary Road.

 

[iwakar]

I want to see this. I'll go see it and come back to this thread.

 

[Ivy]

Is this movie American Titanic or Titanic Beauty?

Or maybe Road to Titanic?

Benjamin Button was far more revolutionary than Revolutionary Road.

Benjamin Button was just Forrest Gump redux. I know, I know, it had great special effects. *makes jackoff hand gesture*

 

[The Ü™]

Benjamin Button was just Forrest Gump redux. I know, I know, it had great special effects. *makes jackoff hand gesture*

Benjamin Button was more like Titanic Gump.

The worst Best Picture contender (and winner) of all time, however, was Gladiator.

 

[Ivy]

Uber, I think we have finally found some common ground. Hallelujah!

I'm not so sure I want to see RR anymore, since Synarch (who I think was excited about it for the same reasons I am/was) was so disappointed. At the very least, now I think it can wait for Nutflix.