Have you ever been so cold that the pain you experienced actually felt like heat? Or touched something so hot, for a split second it felt freezing cold? Scientists call this phenomenon paradoxical warmth/cold. The human body often cannot distinguish between extreme hot and extreme cold, at least initially. The signals get mixed, and the sensory receptors in our skin, particularly our hands, misinterpret the sensation. The phenomenon is not exclusive to our physical bodies. I experienced it recently while watching Revolutionary Road, a film which no one in their right mind would dub a comedy. However, at times Revolutionary Road so pushed the boundaries of tragedy that I almost wondered if I should be laughing.
We all lead lives of quiet desperation, though some of us are louder than others. Adapted from the 1961 novel by author Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road is the story of Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) and April (Kate Winslet), a couple whose marriage is deteriorating into an endless cycle of petty jealousies and misappropriated dreams. Outside their perfect home, their emotions are held in check by Emily Post, but inside, when no one is watching, they tear at each other’s fragile hearts with reckless abandon. Idealists who once saw themselves as special and unique, Frank and April are attempting to hold on to any shred of independence they can find in the conformity-obsessed world of 1950s New England.
Frank and April have developed into the very thing they defiantly pledged they would never become — the quintessential suburban family right down to the passel of kids, the white-picket fence, Frank’s reliable but soul-suffocating job, and for the unsatisfied homemaker, desperation for passion and stimulation. Winslet’s April is nearly identical to her caged housewife in Little Children, but with vastly more maturity. She spends her days “playing house.” Make believing her life is perfect is her only escape, but it is a self-deception that can only work for so long. Will April’s plan to escape social conventions and bundle the family off to Paris succeed, or will Frank’s obsession with holding on to what they already have win out?
We get into Frank and April’s matrimonial discord as quickly as we get into their marriage. Rather than show us a long courting period, we practically walk in on the start of their conjugal collapse, only learning about how they met through flashbacks. Initially, we are not invested in their problems because we have no idea of what is at stake. Later, as we come to understand that they were once very much in love, we realize just how far they have fallen. April describes Frank as the most interesting person she’s ever met. He’s certainly not, but lovers in first blush can be forgiven for such hyperbole. They can also be forgiven for thinking they are special, gifted, fated for an above average life — after all, who doesn’t? But how many of us truly are?
What makes Revolutionary Road work is its undeniably compelling leads, Titanic shipmates reunited. Both actors leave everything on screen, holding back nothing. DiCaprio rages about, reminding one of a slighter Brando demolishing the world in A Streetcar Named Desire. It’s not clear whether we’re meant to like Frank or not. Often portrayed as the man behaving badly, he goes through periods of genuine remorse that endear him to us, right before he goes out and does it all over again. April, while not without her faults, is a woman in an era when her sex automatically relegates her to second class sexual chattel status. Our sympathy is with her from the beginning. Winslet plays April like a woman who is tethered to her sanity by the most gossamer spider’s web — the slightest vibration and it will snap. DiCaprio still has a boyish face, but it is now etched with the lines of adulthood. Winslet looks extraordinary enough to be an era-appropriate pin-up model. The chemistry they had as lovers the first time they appeared together is no less obvious here, at the point of that love’s evaporation. (It must also be noted that Michael Shannon delivers an Academy Award worthy performance as the lunatic prophet son of Kathy Bates.)
If this tale of suburban malaise sounds familiar, it should. The tremendously talented director Sam Mendes has already made it, and better, in American Beauty. This isn’t to say Revolutionary Road doesn’t come at the same material from different angles, but you may walk out of the theater wondering aloud, “We’ve been over all of this before, haven’t we?” Where Mendes seems to diverge from his previous work is the closing thought. Where American Beauty found hope reincarnated even in a pool of blood, Revolutionary Road would seem to suggest that the best manner in which to cope with marriage is to simply stop listening to each other.
It is precisely because of this stark pessimism that you may want to reconsider seeing Revolutionary Road with your significant other. Frank and April savage each other so often and so thoroughly that viewers can’t help but wrestle with some second-hand trauma. How Mendes managed to direct Winslet, his wife, without suffering the same effects is beyond me.
© Copyright 2008 Brandon Fibbs. All rights reserved.
