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Movies / On DVD / Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road

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Revolutionary Road (2008)

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Reviews Counted:193

Fresh:132

Rotten:61

Average Rating:6.7/10

Consensus: Brilliantly acted and emotionally powerful, Revolutionary Road is a handsome adaptation of Richard Yates' celebrated novel.

Australian Rating: TBC

Runtime: 1 hr 59 mins

Genre: Dramas

Australian Theatrical Release:
Jan 22, 2009 Wide

US Box Office: $22,877,808

Synopsis: Those who were waiting for the romantic reunion of TITANIC's Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet may be surprised by what they find in REVOLUTIONARY ROAD. The movie begins with a sweet scene where... Those who were waiting for the romantic reunion of TITANIC's Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet may be surprised by what they find in REVOLUTIONARY ROAD. The movie begins with a sweet scene where Frank (DiCaprio) and April (Winslet) meet at a party, but the rest of this drama based on Richard Yates's novel is devoted to watching the destruction of their marriage and their selves in 1950s suburbia. Frank works at a job he hates in New York City, then commutes home to two children and a wife who feels none of them belong in their cookie-cutter town. Their realtor (a fine Kathy Bates) recognizes their specialness and introduces them to her mentally unstable son (BUG's Michael Shannon, in another good, unhinged performance) in an effort to establish some normalcy for the man. However, Frank and April's marriage is not as perfect as it seems to the outside world, and the audience gets to witness their downfall. With its commentary on conformity and finding identity, REVOLUTIONARY ROAD bears more than a passing resemblance in both theme and tone to the TV series MAD MEN and director Sam Mendes's previous film AMERICAN BEAUTY. The characters here may live in a polite age where men wear ties and hats and women clean the house in skirts and heels, but the dialogue often enters brutal territory. Less capable actors wouldn't have been able to capture the volatile chemistry between Frank and April, but DiCaprio and Winslet are as wonderful at uttering sweet nothings as they are at tearing each other apart with verbal barbs. Mendes, directing his wife, Winslet, for the first time, is a perfect match for the source novel's lack of sentimentality and its wry commentary on life in the 1950s that still resonates half a century later. [More]

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Michael Shannon, Kathryn Hahn

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Michael Shannon, Kathryn Hahn, David Harbour, Kathy Bates, Zoe Kazan

Director: Sam Mendes

Director: Sam Mendes
Screenwriter: Justin Haythe
Producer: John Hart, Scott Rudin, Sam Mendes, Bobby Cohen
Composer: Thomas Newman
Studio: Paramount Vantage

[See More Credits]

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Reviews for Revolutionary Road

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

While the theme of 'what are you doing with your life?' resonates, it's not much fun to watch, in spite of splendid performances from all concerned.

Full Review Source: Time Out Sydney | comment Comment
01/22/09
Nick Dent
Nick Dent
Time Out Sydney
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Sooner or later it becomes very hard to escape the sense that nothing actually happens in this film.

Full Review Source: Triple j | comment 4 Comments
01/22/09
Marc Fennell
Marc Fennell
Triple j
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A gripping and harrowing dissection of two deluded souls.

Full Review Source: FILMINK (Australia) | comment Comment
01/22/09
Peter Galvin
Peter Galvin
FILMINK (Australia)
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A cold and unappealing drama that is almost cripplingly middle-class.

Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph (Australia) | comment Comment
01/22/09
Vicky Roach
Vicky Roach
Daily Telegraph (Australia)
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Does Yates's work stand up today? If you want an insight into the horrors of being married to the wrong person, there's nobody like him. But the result is not so much riveting drama as highly potent aversion therapy.

Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | comment Comment
01/22/09
Sandra Hall
Sandra Hall
Sydney Morning Herald
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Skilfully adapted and superbly directed, the film is an emotional tornado, delivered with exceptional performances from not only the two leads but the entire cast

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
01/15/09
Andrew L. Urban
Andrew L. Urban
Urban Cinefile
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

An involving film that disturbs on the deepest levels as tensions mount, words ricochet like bullets and actions speak louder than words

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
01/15/09
Louise Keller
Louise Keller
Urban Cinefile
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The territory covered is bleak but searingly honest. It’s another terrific achievement for Mendes.

Full Review Source: At the Movies (Australia) | comment 1 Comment
12/19/08
Margaret Pomeranz
Margaret Pomeranz
At the Movies (Australia)
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The characters in this film are weak-willed, pathetic losers. I just couldn't muster much sympathy for the characters that couldn't burst out of the cages of their own design.

Full Review Source: 7M Pictures | comment Comment
01/10/10
Kevin Carr
Kevin Carr
7M Pictures

Revolutionary Road is content to stick with hoary cliches about the emptiness of middle-class bourgeois life.

Full Review Source: Washington Times | comment Comment
08/30/09
Sonny Bunch
Sonny Bunch
Washington Times

Middlebrow self-consciousness

Full Review Source: CinePassion | comment Comment
08/26/09
Fernando F. Croce
Fernando F. Croce
CinePassion

jo%u0161 jedan primjer u dana%u0161njem Hollywoodu sve iritantnijeg %u017Eanra "dajte mi Oscar" filmov

Full Review Source: Index.hr | comment Comment
07/15/09
Dragan Antulov
Dragan Antulov
Index.hr

It plays like Douglas Sirk without the irony.

Full Review Source: DVD Review | comment Comment
06/03/09
Felix Gonzalez Jr.
Felix Gonzalez Jr.
DVD Review

...more of a sedate lecture on values than a revealing or entertaining look at life and love.

Full Review Source: DVDTown.com | comment Comment
05/27/09
John J. Puccio
John J. Puccio
DVDTown.com

Can't tell whether Mendes speaks through his characters or speaks about them

Full Review Source: Movie Habit | comment Comment
04/21/09
Marty Mapes
Marty Mapes
Movie Habit

Similar yet better domestic dramas that come to mind for comparison purposes include "In the Bedroom," "Little Children" and "American Beauty."

Full Review Source: Entertainment Spectrum | comment Comment
03/21/09
Keith Cohen
Keith Cohen
Entertainment Spectrum

Chilly and academic, thoroughly admirable but one step removed from the very real angst of a movie like The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit (1956).

Full Review Source: Miss FlickChick | comment Comment
03/02/09
Maitland McDonagh
Maitland McDonagh
Miss FlickChick

Suburban malaise has seldom been better looking or better acted.

Full Review Source: Oscar Guy | comment Comment
03/01/09
Wesley Lovell
Wesley Lovell
Oscar Guy

[Solid] performances took me over some of the bumps of the movie.

Full Review Source: Scene-Stealers.com | comment Comment
02/11/09
Eric Melin
Eric Melin
Scene-Stealers.com

The result of all this combined talent is a masterpiece of a film that reveals the hidden disease at the heart of American life in the 1950s.

Full Review Source: Laramie Movie Scope | comment Comment
02/11/09
Robert Roten
Robert Roten
Laramie Movie Scope
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 >> >|
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Latest News for Revolutionary Road

June 01, 2009: RT on DVD: Defiance, Revolutionary Road, and Snakes on a Submarine
This week on DVD catch up on a few big flicks you might have missed in theaters, including an Oscar-nominated suburban period piece by Sam Mendes (Revolutionary Road, starring... More...

May 28, 2009: DiCaprio and Winslet reunite for first time since Titanic as Fifties couple in crisis. Opens in new window
More...

January 25, 2009: Sean Penn, Meryl Streep win at SAG awards
For the 15th year running, the Screen Actors Guild has gotten together to honor excellence among its members -- and we've reproduced the complete list of winners for the 2008... More...

January 24, 2009: Iconoclast.com: At any moment, we expect the depressed, chain smoking gilded cage suburban house pet Kate to morph into Sylvia Plath, poised to stick her head in the oven, a premature free spirit imprisoned in a breezy hollow world. Opens in new window
More...

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