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.

Gran Torino’s recent success is a surprise. Eastwood’s career path has brought him from Western hero to 70s tough guy to perspicacious film director. He doesn’t make action films anymore, his films are low-budget, insightful studies on being human, the type of movie making that rarely leads to box office success. What a sly move then, to use the drawing power of his old western alter ego and cast himself as Walt Kowalski, a grizzled Korean war vet who has outlived all his neighbors and now lives amidst first generation Americans, some of whom, to Kowalski surprise, look like his old enemy but actually fought on America’s side during the Vietnam War, as his young Hmong neighbor informs him. Eventually won over by this courageous young neighbor, Sue, Kowalski assumes the role of protector to the fatherless girl and her younger brother, and teaches the boy how to be a man, or at least Kowalski’s version of a man. Insensitive to Kowalski’s bigoted remarks, the two teens forge a strong bond with their neighbor, who takes drastic steps throughout the film to ensure the kids’ safety from local gangs. Eastwood’s Man With No Name has settled down but he never stops fighting. A tough film, with a satisfying ending that also retains the solemn imagery of life in America’s gang riddled streets, Gran Torino is worth a trip to the cineplex.

Changeling, starring Angelina Jolie as Christine Collins, focuses on the true account of the abduction of Collins’ son in 1920s Los Angeles. Eastwood shines as an actor in Gran Torino, but his acute directing skills help Changelling to overcome a weak performance from Jolie. Now in her superstar phase, much like Jennifer Lopez, Jolie should be shying away from understated roles and focusing more on characters like the assassin she played in Wanted, which suited her larger-than-life persona. Christine Collins was a strong women, revealed in the film as an obstinate and loyal mother forever dedicated to finding her son, whom she is convinced is alive. Collins’ strength was am indicator of change in the women’s right movement, but her will had to be weakened by the disappearance of her son. I never got the sense from Jolie’s performance that a part of her couldn’t cope with the pressures put on her by the LAPD, who found a different boy and attempted to convince Collins that they had found her missing child. Collins repeated attempts to convince them otherwise are thwarted by a police force eagerly trying to portray itself as effective and uncorrupted. The story is chilling in many parts, as the ‘good’ police begin to unravel the story of a serial killer in the area, and Eastwood stays true to the mystery throughout the film, but the film is most effective when it focuses on the persecution of Collins and her desperate fight to prove the LAPD wrong so that she can resume the search for her actual son. We see lawyers helping her with this cause and lawyers who want to expose corruption, but Collins’ focus is narrow, and the audience is drawn to her mission. The film looks perfect, brilliantly photographed by Tom Stern, who also worked on the haunting Road to Perdition, and Eastwood always has his camera perfectly positioned. I decided two years ago, after seeing Letters From Iwo Jima, that Eastwood is now our best living director. He has now added to additional great films to a remarkable body of work.