"Revolutionary Road" -- One of 2008's Very Best Films
The greatness of "Revolutionary Road" lies in Sam Mendes braveness in asking the question we all seem so afraid of: "Just what is it I want out of life?" For all of humanity's bluster, macho-ness, and hero worship, we're all just so very afraid that we don't, in the larger sense, matter to anyone but ourselves. We all seem to live lives of "quiet desperation" indeed.
In dealing with very, very adult themes "Road" is not for the faint of heart. Its failure at the box office and during awards season may be because people just don't want to hear that life can be pretty fucking traumatic quite a bit of the time. To me, that is reality. While a great many others may go to movies to escape their lives, I go to make mine better. This film helps accomplish that by shedding light on the dark corners of our existence.
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I hate reviewers who give away much of the plot of a film; therefore I make every effort to tell readers of this blog simply whether to see a film or not, and why, in a brief but honest way.
And you should see "Road" because it is, in my opinion, one of the very best films of last year. To say that it was underrated by the critics and audience is to damn it with much too faint praise.
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Having seen "The Reader", for which Ms. Winslet won an Acadamy Award, I feel that her performance in "Road" was stronger. Leonardo DiCarpio is his usual emotive, emotional self, and does a nice job with the more sympathetic of the two main characters. Kathy Bates and Micheal Shannon are powerhouses as the real estate agent and her troubled son (Shannon got an Oscar nomination for his showy part). Every performance is spot on perfect, and the costume and set design are, as one would expect in a Sam Mendes film, sensational.
In dealing with very, very adult themes "Road" is not for the faint of heart. Its failure at the box office and during awards season may be because people just don't want to hear that life can be pretty fucking traumatic quite a bit of the time. To me, that is reality. While a great many others may go to movies to escape their lives, I go to make mine better. This film helps accomplish that by shedding light on the dark corners of our existence.
------------
I hate reviewers who give away much of the plot of a film; therefore I make every effort to tell readers of this blog simply whether to see a film or not, and why, in a brief but honest way.
And you should see "Road" because it is, in my opinion, one of the very best films of last year. To say that it was underrated by the critics and audience is to damn it with much too faint praise.
-----------
Having seen "The Reader", for which Ms. Winslet won an Acadamy Award, I feel that her performance in "Road" was stronger. Leonardo DiCarpio is his usual emotive, emotional self, and does a nice job with the more sympathetic of the two main characters. Kathy Bates and Micheal Shannon are powerhouses as the real estate agent and her troubled son (Shannon got an Oscar nomination for his showy part). Every performance is spot on perfect, and the costume and set design are, as one would expect in a Sam Mendes film, sensational.
posted by joe sweeney at 10:57 PM
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