Revolutionary Road

Taking place in the mid-50s, when divorce was taboo but extramarital affairs seemed commonplace, Revolutionary Road reveals the devastating effects of a marriage that today would likely dissolve in divorce, but at the time descended into madness. The Wheelers are young and beautiful, with a nice home in a nice suburb; they are the picture of perfection for their nosy neighbors, one of whom, Mrs. Givings, asks them to meet her troubled son in an effort to show him what he could attain if he made a few friends and settled down. Mrs. Givings sees her son as a lunatic. He has been institutionalized because he seems to hold contrary opinions to those around him and he has an overwhelming need to tell the truth when he converses with others, and he is very insightful, which makes him a nightmare for the Wheelers. He meets them and quickly demolishes the façade that the Wheelers have constructed for the public and for themselves, for they don’t fully realize the extent of their mutual lies.

In his book Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker talks about the resentment we often feel towards those closest to us. Our instinct to survive is often betrayed by our love for others and the mind can subconsciously develop ways to hurt the ones we love as a survival tool. Revolutionary Road adheres to this theory. April Wheeler feels trapped. She wants change and tries to convince Frank to move to France, a place they have always talked about visiting. Frank, himself lost in the every day monotony of a long commute and a dead end job, agrees to the idea before he catches a break at work and is offered a promotion. His brief success makes him want to stay and April’s hopes are shattered, but a move to France would only have been a band-aid on top of a gaping wound. Frank and April’s relationship seems doomed right from the opening scene of the movie. This is a film about the nightmare of a marriage’s final days.

Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio play the unlucky couple, their first movie together since Titanic. Winslet’s husband, Sam Mendes, the brilliant director of American Beauty and Road to Perdition, directs the film, which I hope is not an account of their marriage. Winslet and DiCaprio give bold, brilliant performances, each is asked to summon anger and despair in undulating scenes of serenity and savagery. I could not bring myself to see this movie again but it is a masterpiece, another from Mendes, who continues to open doors into the depths of human despair.

Extras

The Reader

Winslet’s performance as Hanna Schmitz is very good in the story of a young man, Michael Berg, who meets and begins an affair with the much older Schmitz, and later finds that Hanna, who once disappeared from his life, may have committed a horrible crime during the Holocaust. Hanna seems sure to receive the most severe prison term amongst the group of women who were involved in the act, but the boy knows a secret that could potentially lead to her acquittal and assuredly to a substantially reduced sentence. The events of the affair and subsequent trail are told in Michael’s reflections 30 years after he began the affair as he still questions whether he did the right thing during the trail. His life has become a series of one night stands after his divorce, and his daughter feels that her father has purposely distanced himself from her life. He has never forgotten Hanna, and his affair with her has had a major impact on his life, as fond memories of first love have overpowered the decisions he has made in his relationships. He never lets Hanna go.

As we watch the progression of Schmitz’ life, we see a women who will never find peace but seizes opportunities for moments of happiness. Early in the film, she is a woman with an obvious secret, who seems to harbour regret as she struggles to forget her past. Later, as we witness her on trail for war crimes, we meet a woman who has rationalized her acts because she feels that she had no alternative to the action she committed. As her life moves forward after the trail, we witness a women resigned to the fact that she deserves no peace, and instead focuses on overcoming a shameful secret. Schmitz is in many ways a victim, and her explanation of the crime reflects the actions of a woman who held no prejudices against the Jewish people, though her inactions may make her guilty. The film asks tough questions about her trail in scenes where Michael and his classmates review the case in an academic setting. Their professor asks them to explore the meaning of guilt, not German guilt, as was common at the time, but criminal guilt, and a simple answer does not exist. Making a movie about the Holocaust requires respect for the Jewish victims and The Reader does a nice job in presenting the point a view of a child who grew up to write an account of the event for which Schmitz is on trail. Berg, who refuses to ignore Hanna, meets with this victim at a pivotal point in the movie and his actions reflect those of good man, who is trying to do the right thing, perhaps to atone for the one time he may have made a mistake.