Revolutionary road

In theory, I should love everything about Revolutionary Road. I love Leonardo DiCaprio, I love Kate Winslet most of the time, and I thought the story sounded engaging, thought provoking and interesting. I was wrong. The film is far too slow paced, the acting does not make me either root for the characters or engage with them in any way. I thought the story had the potential to be riveting and heart wrenching- i thought it would make me want to shout at the film (the way I normally do.). Again, I was completely wrong. the film seemed cold, disengaged, and the actors do not seem to have any faith in the characters that they are playing.

In my opinion, Kate Winslet has not really engaged with the character she is playing, or understood the feeling of entrapment she is trying to portray, or known the feeling of hope at the prospect of living a life she has always dreamt of, or the heartbreak when that prospect disappeared. As a result of these things (plus the awful American accent), I did not believe her character. I thought the character seemed soulless and fictional. And of course I know the character is fictional, but in the films I enjoy I don't want to remember that they aren't real. I want to feel their pain, I want to want them to be happy. But I just didn't care about April Wheeler, I couldn't stop thinking just go on a cruise with the man and get over it. The only scene in which Winslet redeemed herself was when she lost control and screamed at her husband. After this scene she became much more believable, in the way that her happiness was wooden, and finally the end. The character finally became real for me in these scenes, and I wanted her to find happiness. It was just a shame that these scenes were so near the end.

Leonardo DiCaprio did a better job than his co-star, but I still did not believe the different sides of his character. I could believe his clingy, over-analysing, needing to talk about everything side, but not the part where he had an affair. I could see how a man (hypothetically) could do both of those things, but DiCaprio just looked to me like he was playing two different characters- which of course he wasn't. He disappointed me in this film, mainly because I loved him so much in other films- Catch me if you can, J Edgar, Shutter Island and The Aviator- I loved him in all of these which is what baffled me so much as to why he was not up to his usual standards!

I also think the director made a mistake in the pacing of the film. I felt like for the vast majority of the film nothing really happened and we were just watching a normal suburban family. I think a lot of this is down to the bad acting though. On a more positive note, the cinematography in the film was fantastic. The shots conveyed the emotions that I felt the actors didn't portray to a high standard.