Revolutionary Road 2008 film Wikipedia page

Revolutionary Road (film)
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Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary road.jpg
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
Sam Mendes
Produced by
Bobby Cohen
Sam Mendes
Scott Rudin
Screenplay by
Justin Haythe
Based on
Revolutionary Road
 by Richard Yates
Starring
Leonardo DiCaprio
Kate Winslet
Michael Shannon
Kathryn Hahn
David Harbour
Kathy Bates
Ty Simpkins
Music by
Thomas Newman
Cinematography
Roger Deakins
Editing by
Tariq Anwar
Studio
BBC Films & DreamWorks
Distributed by
Paramount Vantage (US)
UIP (most of Europe)
Release dates
15 December 2008 (United States)
30 January 2009 (United Kingdom)

Running time
119 minutes
Country
United States
 United Kingdom
Language
English
Budget
$35 million
Box office
$75,226,021[1]
Revolutionary Road is a 2008 American drama film, based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Richard Yates, directed by Sam Mendes. This is the second collaboration between Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, who previously co-starred in Titanic. Her performance earned Kate Winslet a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, and the film was nominated for a further three Golden Globes, four BAFTAs and three Oscars.
The film premiered in Los Angeles on 15 December 2008, followed by a limited U.S. release on 26 December 2008 and a wide U.S. release on 23 January 2009. In most other countries it was released between 15 and 30 January 2009.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Development
4 Reaction 4.1 Critical reception
4.2 Top ten lists
5 Accolades
6 References
7 External links

Plot[edit]
In the late 1940s, Frank Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio) meets April (Kate Winslet) at a party. He is a longshoreman, hoping to be a cashier; she wants to be an actress. Frank later secures a sales position with Knox Machines, for which his father worked for twenty years, and he and April marry. The Wheelers move to 115 Revolutionary Road in suburban Connecticut when April becomes pregnant. Frank and April settle into the normality of suburban life while bringing up their children, Michael and Jennifer.
The couple becomes close friends with their realtor Helen Givings (Kathy Bates) and her husband Howard Givings (Richard Easton), and neighbor Milly Campbell (Kathryn Hahn) and her husband Shep (David Harbour). To their friends, the Wheelers are the perfect couple, but their relationship is troubled. April fails to make a career out of acting, while Frank hates the tedium of his work. April wants new scenery and a chance to support the family so that Frank can find his passion.
April recalls how Frank talked about moving back to Paris. With a failed career, she believes Paris is the solution to their problems, and she suggests they move. Initially Frank laughs off the idea, but then begins considering it. The only person who understands the Wheelers' decision is Helen's troubled son, John (Michael Shannon). Frank admits to John that they indeed are running away from the "hopeless emptiness" of their repetitive lifestyle.
As the couple prepares to move, they are forced to reconsider. Frank, propelled by a carefree attitude brought on by the thought of Paris, turns in a sarcastic piece of work to his boss. To his surprise, his work is considered brilliant by company executives and he is offered a promotion. April becomes pregnant again, and Frank discovers she is contemplating having an abortion. He is furious and starts screaming at April, leading to a serious altercation. April is desperate to move to Paris, but Frank is disgusted by the thought of abortion, causing him to feel that moving to Paris is an unrealistic dream. The next day Frank takes the promotion and tries to accept his uneventful life. At the end of an evening at a jazz bar with Milly and Shep, a car blocks in one of the cars the couples came in. Milly is intoxicated and April suggests that Frank drive Milly home to release the babysitters at each house, while she and Shep wait for the blocking car's driver to return. Shep and April re-enter the jazz bar, and eventually dance feverishly with each other, then have sexual intercourse in the car. Shep professes his long-held love for April, but she rejects his interest.
The following day, Frank confesses to having had an affair with a female assistant at his office, hoping to reconcile with April. To his surprise, April responds apathetically and tells him it does not matter as her love for him has gone, which he does not believe. The Givingses come over for dinner, and Frank announces to the guests that their plans have changed, as April is pregnant. John harshly lambasts Frank for crushing April's hope as well as his acceptance of his circumstances, accusing Frank of intentionally getting April pregnant to destroy the idea of moving to Paris, and saying that April allowed him to do it so that she would feel her husband was "a real man". Frank gets angry, nearly attacks John, and the Givings hurry out. Afterwards, Frank and April have a severe verbal altercation, after which April flees the house.
Frank spends the night in a drunken stupor but is shocked to find April in the kitchen the next morning, calmly making breakfast. The couple have a pleasant breakfast, with April asking Frank about work and Frank seeming enthusiastic as he describes how the large computer purchase he is making will help many businesses. April's mood seems to have improved, but after bidding goodbye to Frank, she breaks down and prepares to perform her own vacuum aspiration abortion, which proves fatal. Shep goes to the hospital to support Frank, who hysterically tells him, "she did it to herself." April dies in the hospital due to complications following the abortion.
A new couple, the Braces, buy the house and we hear Milly telling the story of the Wheelers to them, relating how Frank moved to the city and is still working with computers, devoting every spare moment of his life to his children. Shep, harboring both sadness over April's death as well as guilt for his fling with her, quietly tells Milly he doesn't want to talk about the Wheelers anymore. Milly agrees.
In the final scene, Helen tells Howard she thinks the Braces are the first people she has ever found suitable for the home. Howard asks why she does not give credit to the Wheelers, and she says they were too whimsical, trying, and neurotic. As she continues discussing what she did not like about the Wheelers, Howard, not wanting to be rude but really not wanting to hear any more either, turns off his hearing aid and Helen's voice fades out.
Cast[edit]
Leonardo DiCaprio as Frank Wheeler
Kate Winslet as April Wheeler
Dylan Baker as Jack Ordway
Zoe Kazan as Maureen Grube
Kathy Bates as Helen Givings
Michael Shannon as John Givings, Jr.
Kathryn Hahn as Milly Campbell
David Harbour as Shep Campbell
Max Casella as Ed Small
Richard Easton as Howard Givings
Jay O. Sanders as Bart Pollock
Ryan Simpkins as Jennifer Wheeler
Ty Simpkins as Michael Wheeler
Development[edit]
After Richard Yates' novel was published in 1961, director John Frankenheimer considered filming it, but opted to make The Manchurian Candidate instead.[2] Samuel Goldwyn Jr., expressed an interest in making it into a film but others in his studio convinced him that it lacked commercial prospects.[3] In 1965, producer Albert S. Ruddy bought the rights but did not like the book's ending, and wanted to obscure April's death with "tricky camerawork".[3] He became involved in adapting The Godfather and, five years later, while a writer-in-residence at Wichita State University, Yates offered to adapt his work for the screen. Ruddy had other projects lined up at the time and demurred, eventually selling the rights to actor Patrick O'Neal. The actor loved the book and spent the rest of his life trying to finish a workable screenplay.[3] Yates read O'Neal's treatment of his novel and found it "godawful", but O'Neal refused the writer's repeated offers to buy back the rights. Yates died in 1992, O'Neal two years later.[2]
The project remained in limbo until 2001 when Todd Field expressed interest in adapting it for the screen. However, when told by the O'Neal estate he would be required to shoot O'Neal's script as written, Field stepped away from the material and opted to make Little Children instead.[4] David Thompson eventually purchased the rights for BBC Films.[5] In March 2007, BBC Films established a partnership with DreamWorks, and the rights to the film's worldwide distribution were assigned to Paramount Pictures, owner of DreamWorks. On 14 February 2008, Paramount announced that Paramount Vantage was "taking over distribution duties on Revolutionary Road".[6] The BBC hired Justin Haythe to write the screenplay because, according to the screenwriter, he was "hugely affordable".[3]
Kate Winslet sent producer Scott Rudin the script and he told her that her then husband, director Sam Mendes, would be perfect to direct it.[3] She gave Mendes Yates' novel and told him, "I really want to play this part".[7] He read Haythe's script and then the book in quick succession. Haythe's first draft was very faithful to the novel, using large parts of Yates' own language, but Mendes told him to find ways to externalize what Frank and April do not say to each other.[3]
Once Leonardo DiCaprio agreed to do the film, it went almost immediately into production.[3] DiCaprio said that he saw his character as "unheroic" and "slightly cowardly" and that he was "willing to be just a product of his environment".[8] DiCaprio prepared for the role by watching several documentaries about the 1950s and the origin of suburbs. He said that the film was not meant to be a romance and that he and Winslet intentionally avoided films that show them in romantic roles since Titanic.[8] Both actors were reluctant to make films similar to Titanic because "we just knew it would be a fundamental mistake to try to repeat any of those themes".[9] To prepare for the role, Winslet read The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan.[10]
Mendes had the cast rehearse for three-and-a-half weeks before principal photography and shot everything in sequence and on location.[11] Actor Michael Shannon said that he did not feel that on the set of the film there were any stars, but "a group of people united by a passion for the material and wanting to honor the book".[12] He said that Winslet and DiCaprio could only make such a good performance as a couple because they had developed a friendship since their work on Titanic. For Shannon, it was more important to prepare for the moment when he walked on the set than being concerned about the movie stars he was working with.[12] On the fight scenes between him and Winslet, DiCaprio said, "So much of what happens between Frank and April in this film is what's left unsaid. I actually found it a real joy to do those fight scenes because finally, these people were letting each other have it."[9] The shoot was so emotionally and physically exhausting for DiCaprio that he postponed his next film for two months.[11]
Mendes wanted to create a claustrophobic dynamic and shot all of the Wheeler house interiors in an actual house in Darien, Connecticut. DiCaprio remembers, "it was many months in this house and there was no escaping the environment. I think it fed into the performances." They could not film in a period accurate house because it would have been too small to shoot inside.[13] Production Designer Kristi Zea is responsible for the "iconic, nostalgic images of quaint Americana", although she says that was "absolutely the antithesis of what we wanted to do".[13] Zea chose for the set of this film furnishings that "middle-class America would be buying at that time".[13]
During the post-production phase, Mendes cut 18 scenes, or 20 minutes to achieve a less literal version that he saw as more in the spirit of Yates' novel.[3]
Reaction[edit]
Revolutionary Road had a limited release in the United States at three theatres on December 26, 2008, and a wide release at 1,058 theatres on January 23, 2009. Revolutionary Road has earned $22.9 million at the domestic box office and $51.7 million internationally for a worldwide total of $74.6 million.[1]
Critical reception[edit]
Revolutionary Road has received generally positive reviews from critics.
Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said:
“ It takes the skill of stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio and director Sam Mendes to get this film to a place where it involves and moves us—which it finally does—but it is a near thing... Justin Haythe's screenplay does many good things, but it can't escape the arch lingo of the time... and that in turn makes the film's concerns initially feel dated and outmoded as well... Encouraged by Mendes' artful direction, his gift for eliciting naturalness, the core of this film finally cries out to us today, makes us see that the notion of characters struggling with life, with the despair of betraying their best selves because of what society will or won't allow, is as gripping and relevant now as it ever was. Or ever will be.[14] ”
Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News said:
“ [the film] comes close but falls short of capturing Richard Yates' terrific novel... the movie—two-thirds Mad Men, one-third American Beauty, with a John Cheever chaser—works best when focusing on the personal. Thankfully, it's there that Mendes and screenwriter Justin Haythe catch some of Yates' weighty ideas, and where Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet succeed in doing the heavy lifting... DiCaprio, round-shouldered and sleepy-eyed, and Winslet, watchful and alert, raise up each other and everything around them. Never once shadowed by Titanic, they suggest, often wordlessly, the box the Wheelers have found themselves in. Whereas the novel is told mostly from Frank's viewpoint, the movie is just as much April's, and Winslet, whether fighting back or fighting back tears, is sensational.[15] ”
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave Revolutionary Road four stars out of four, commending the acting and screenplay and calling the film "so good it is devastating". He said of Winslet and DiCaprio, "they are so good, they stop being actors and become the people I grew up around."[16]
Todd McCarthy of Variety called the film "faithful, intelligent, admirably acted, superbly shot" and added, "It also offers a near-perfect case study of the ways in which film is incapable of capturing certain crucial literary qualities, in this case the very things that elevate the book from being a merely insightful study of a deteriorating marriage into a remarkable one... Even when the dramatic temperature is cranked up too high, the picture's underpinnings seem only partly present, to the point where one suspects that what it's reaching for dramatically might be all but unattainable—perhaps approachable only by Pinter at his peak."[17] McCarthy later significantly qualified his review, calling Revolutionary Road "problematic" and that it "has some issues that just won't go away".[18] He concludes that Revolutionary Road suffers in comparison to Billy Wilder's The Apartment and Richard Quine's Strangers When We Meet because of its "narrow vision", even arguing that the television series Mad Men handles the issues of conformity, frustration, and hypocrisy "with more panache and precision".[18]
David Ansen of Newsweek said the film "is lushly, impeccably mounted—perhaps too much so. Mendes, a superb stage director, has an innately theatrical style: everything pops off the screen a little bigger and bolder than life, but the effect, rather than intensifying the emotions, calls attention to itself. Instead of losing myself in the story, I often felt on the outside looking in, appreciating the craftsmanship, but one step removed from the agony on display. Revolutionary Road is impressive, but it feels like a classic encased in amber."[19]
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly graded the film B+ and commented:
“ The film is lavishly dark—some might say too dark—yet I'd suggest it has a different limitation: For all its shattering domestic discord, there's something remote and aestheticized about it. April brings a private well of conflict to her middle-class prison, but Winslet is so meticulous in her telegraphed despair that she intrigues us, moves us, yet never quite touches our unguarded nerves.[20] ”
Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter called the film a "didactic, emotionally overblown critique of the soulless suburbs" and added, "Revolutionary Road is, essentially, a repeat for Mendes of American Beauty... Once more, the suburbs are well-upholstered nightmares and its denizens clueless—other than one estranged male. Clearly, this environment attracts the dramatic sensibilities of this theater-trained director. Everything is boldly indicated to the audience from arch acting styles to the wink-wink, nod-nod of its design. Indeed his actors play the subtext with such fury that the text virtually disappears. Subtlety is not one of Mendes' strong suits."[21]
Rex Reed of The New York Observer called the film "a flawless, moment-to-moment autopsy of a marriage on the rocks and an indictment of the American Dream gone sour" and "a profound, intelligent and deeply heartfelt work that raises the bar of filmmaking to exhilarating."[22]
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called the film "raw and riveting" and commented, "Directed with extraordinary skill by Sam Mendes, who warms the chill in the Yates-faithful script by Justin Haythe, the film is a tough road well worth traveling . . . DiCaprio is in peak form, bringing layers of buried emotion to a defeated man. And the glorious Winslet defines what makes an actress great, blazing commitment to a character and the range to make every nuance felt."[23]
Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle voted the film as his best of 2008. He commented, "Finally, this is a movie that can and should be seen more than once. Watch it one time through her eyes. Watch it again through his eyes. It works both ways. It works in every way. This is a great American film."[24]
It holds a 69% rating from critics on review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 190 reviews, with the consensus being "Brilliantly acted and emotionally powerful, Revolutionary Road is a handsome adaptation of Richard Yates' celebrated novel".[25] Metacritic lists it with a 69 out of 100, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 38 reviews.[26]
Top ten lists[edit]
The film appeared on several critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008.[27]
1st – Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
2nd – Rex Reed, New York Observer
6th – Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News
6th – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
7th – Lou Lumenick, New York Post
8th – James Berardinelli, ReelViews
9th – David Denby, The New Yorker
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times (Ebert gave an alphabetical top 20 list)
Accolades[edit]

Awards[28]

Award
Category
Recipient(s)
Outcome
Academy Awards Best Art Direction Debra Schutt and Kristi Zea Nominated
Best Costume Design Albert Wolsky Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Michael Shannon Nominated
BAFTA Awards Best Actress Kate Winslet Nominated
Best Costume Design Albert Wolsky Nominated
Best Production Design Debra Schutt and Kristi Zea Nominated
Best Adapted Screenplay Justin Haythe Nominated
Costume Designers Guild Best Costume Design – Period Film Albert Wolsky Nominated
Golden Globe Awards Best Motion Picture – Drama  Nominated
Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama Leonardo DiCaprio Nominated
Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Kate Winslet Won
Best Director – Motion Picture Sam Mendes Nominated
29th London Film Critics Circle Awards Actress of the Year Kate Winslet
 (for Revolutionary Road and The Reader) Won
Screen Actors Guild Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role – Motion Picture Kate Winslet Nominated
Satellite Awards Top 10 Films of 2008  Won
Best Art Direction and Production Design Kristi Zea, Teresa Carriker-Thayer, John Kasarda, and Nicholas Lundy Nominated
Best Film – Drama  Nominated
Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama Leonardo DiCaprio Nominated
Best Adapted Screenplay Justin Haythe Nominated
Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Michael Shannon Won
St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Best Actress Kate Winslet Won
Vancouver Film Critics Circle Best Actress Kate Winslet
 (for Revolutionary Road and The Reader) Won
According to Academy rules, an actor or actress may receive only one nomination per category, and due to the difference in rules between the Golden Globes and Academy Awards, Kate Winslet's role in The Reader was considered a leading one by the Academy, while the Golden Globe regarded it a supporting role. So, as Winslet's performance in The Reader had been nominated for Best Actress in 2008 by the Academy, her performance in Revolutionary Road couldn't be nominated.[citation needed]
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b "Revolutionary Road (2008)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-08-16.
2.^ Jump up to: a b Bailey, Blake (2007-06-26). "Revolutionary Road—the Movie". Slate.com. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
3.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h McGrath, Charles (2008-12-14). "Kate! Leo! Gloom! Doom! Can It Work?". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
4.Jump up ^ "Revolutionary Road (2008) – Trivia". IMDb. Retrieved 2011-05-20.
5.Jump up ^ McClintock, Pamela (2007-03-22). "DiCaprio, Winslet to Star in Road". Variety. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
6.Jump up ^ McClintock, Pamela (2008-02-14). "New Dates for Eight Under Par". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
7.Jump up ^ Knegt, Peter (2008-12-22). "Plumbing the Depths of Revolutionary Road: Sam Mendes on Yates, Kate, and the Pressures of Awards". indieWIRE. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
8.^ Jump up to: a b Guzman, Rafer (2009-01-19). "In Revolutionary Road, Leo DiCaprio just an ordinary guy". Slate.com. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
9.^ Jump up to: a b Wong, Grace (2009-01-23). "DiCaprio reveals joys of fighting with Winslet". CNN. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
10.Jump up ^ Cochrane, Kira (2008-12-19). "I did have moments where I'd say, Oh my God ...". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 2009-05-27.
11.^ Jump up to: a b Wood, Gaby (2008-12-14). "How Sam became The Man". The Observer. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
12.^ Jump up to: a b Copley, Rich (2009-01-22). "Michael Shannon's small part in Revolutionary Road made a big impact". The State. Retrieved 2009-05-27.[dead link]
13.^ Jump up to: a b c Hillis, Aaron (2009-01-06). "Revolutionary Road – Evoke an era of suburban life without overdoing it". Variety. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
14.Jump up ^ Turan, Kenneth. "'Revolutionary Road': Strong Performances Steer This 1950s Marital Drama Out of a Period-Picture Trap." Los Angeles Times. December 26, 2008.[dead link]
15.Jump up ^ Joe Neumaier (2008-12-24). "Neumaier, Joe. "Revolutionary Road: Beauty is in the Details of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet's Reunion Movie 'Revolutionary Road'." New York Daily News. December 24, 2008". NYDailyNews.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
16.Jump up ^ Roger Ebert (2008-12-30). "Revolutionary Road :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2009-01-23.
17.Jump up ^ By (2008-11-17). "McCarthy, Todd. "Revolutionary Road." Variety. November 17, 2008". Variety.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.[dead link]
18.^ Jump up to: a b "McCarthy, Todd. "'50s Melodrama Hard to Capture on Film," Variety. January 8, 2009". Variety.com. 2009-01-08. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
19.Jump up ^ David Ansen (2008-11-28). "Ansen, David. "Revolutionary Road." Newsweek. November 28, 2008". NewsWeek.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
20.Jump up ^ Owen Gleiberman (2008-12-24). "Gleiberman, Owen. "Revolutionary Road." Entertainment Weekly. November 28, 2008". EW.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
21.Jump up ^ Honeycutt, Kirk (2008-11-17). ""Film Review: Revolutionary Road." The Hollywood Reporter. November 17, 2008". HollywoodReporter.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.[dead link]
22.Jump up ^ "Reed, Rex. "Love Asunder." New York Observer. December 16, 2008". Observer.com. 2008-12-16. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
23.Jump up ^ Travers, Peter. "Revolutionary Road." Rolling Stone. December 25, 2008.[dead link]
24.Jump up ^ Mick LaSalle, Chronicle Movie Critic (2009-01-02). "LaSalle, Mick. "Movie Review: 'Revolutionary Road' Year's Best." San Francisco Chronicle. January 2, 2009". SFGate.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
25.Jump up ^ "'Revolutionary Road' Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. IGN. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
26.Jump up ^ "'Revolutionary Road' Reviews, Ratings, Credits". Metacritic. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
27.Jump up ^ "Metacritic: 2008 Film Critic Top Ten Lists". Metacritic. Retrieved January 11, 2009.[dead link]
28.Jump up ^ IMDb: Awards for Revolutionary Road Retrieved 2012-01-03
External links[edit]
Official website
Revolutionary Road at the Internet Movie Database
Revolutionary Road at allmovie
Revolutionary Road at Rotten Tomatoes
Revolutionary Road at Metacritic
Revolutionary Road at Box Office Mojo


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Films about suburbia
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Films directed by Sam Mendes
Films featuring a Best Drama Actress Golden Globe winning performance
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Revolutionary Road (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary road.jpg
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
Sam Mendes
Produced by
Bobby Cohen
Sam Mendes
Scott Rudin
Screenplay by
Justin Haythe
Based on
Revolutionary Road
 by Richard Yates
Starring
Leonardo DiCaprio
Kate Winslet
Michael Shannon
Kathryn Hahn
David Harbour
Kathy Bates
Ty Simpkins
Music by
Thomas Newman
Cinematography
Roger Deakins
Editing by
Tariq Anwar
Studio
BBC Films & DreamWorks
Distributed by
Paramount Vantage (US)
UIP (most of Europe)
Release dates
15 December 2008 (United States)
30 January 2009 (United Kingdom)

Running time
119 minutes
Country
United States
 United Kingdom
Language
English
Budget
$35 million
Box office
$75,226,021[1]
Revolutionary Road is a 2008 American drama film, based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Richard Yates, directed by Sam Mendes. This is the second collaboration between Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, who previously co-starred in Titanic. Her performance earned Kate Winslet a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, and the film was nominated for a further three Golden Globes, four BAFTAs and three Oscars.
The film premiered in Los Angeles on 15 December 2008, followed by a limited U.S. release on 26 December 2008 and a wide U.S. release on 23 January 2009. In most other countries it was released between 15 and 30 January 2009.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Development
4 Reaction 4.1 Critical reception
4.2 Top ten lists
5 Accolades
6 References
7 External links

Plot[edit]
In the late 1940s, Frank Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio) meets April (Kate Winslet) at a party. He is a longshoreman, hoping to be a cashier; she wants to be an actress. Frank later secures a sales position with Knox Machines, for which his father worked for twenty years, and he and April marry. The Wheelers move to 115 Revolutionary Road in suburban Connecticut when April becomes pregnant. Frank and April settle into the normality of suburban life while bringing up their children, Michael and Jennifer.
The couple becomes close friends with their realtor Helen Givings (Kathy Bates) and her husband Howard Givings (Richard Easton), and neighbor Milly Campbell (Kathryn Hahn) and her husband Shep (David Harbour). To their friends, the Wheelers are the perfect couple, but their relationship is troubled. April fails to make a career out of acting, while Frank hates the tedium of his work. April wants new scenery and a chance to support the family so that Frank can find his passion.
April recalls how Frank talked about moving back to Paris. With a failed career, she believes Paris is the solution to their problems, and she suggests they move. Initially Frank laughs off the idea, but then begins considering it. The only person who understands the Wheelers' decision is Helen's troubled son, John (Michael Shannon). Frank admits to John that they indeed are running away from the "hopeless emptiness" of their repetitive lifestyle.
As the couple prepares to move, they are forced to reconsider. Frank, propelled by a carefree attitude brought on by the thought of Paris, turns in a sarcastic piece of work to his boss. To his surprise, his work is considered brilliant by company executives and he is offered a promotion. April becomes pregnant again, and Frank discovers she is contemplating having an abortion. He is furious and starts screaming at April, leading to a serious altercation. April is desperate to move to Paris, but Frank is disgusted by the thought of abortion, causing him to feel that moving to Paris is an unrealistic dream. The next day Frank takes the promotion and tries to accept his uneventful life. At the end of an evening at a jazz bar with Milly and Shep, a car blocks in one of the cars the couples came in. Milly is intoxicated and April suggests that Frank drive Milly home to release the babysitters at each house, while she and Shep wait for the blocking car's driver to return. Shep and April re-enter the jazz bar, and eventually dance feverishly with each other, then have sexual intercourse in the car. Shep professes his long-held love for April, but she rejects his interest.
The following day, Frank confesses to having had an affair with a female assistant at his office, hoping to reconcile with April. To his surprise, April responds apathetically and tells him it does not matter as her love for him has gone, which he does not believe. The Givingses come over for dinner, and Frank announces to the guests that their plans have changed, as April is pregnant. John harshly lambasts Frank for crushing April's hope as well as his acceptance of his circumstances, accusing Frank of intentionally getting April pregnant to destroy the idea of moving to Paris, and saying that April allowed him to do it so that she would feel her husband was "a real man". Frank gets angry, nearly attacks John, and the Givings hurry out. Afterwards, Frank and April have a severe verbal altercation, after which April flees the house.
Frank spends the night in a drunken stupor but is shocked to find April in the kitchen the next morning, calmly making breakfast. The couple have a pleasant breakfast, with April asking Frank about work and Frank seeming enthusiastic as he describes how the large computer purchase he is making will help many businesses. April's mood seems to have improved, but after bidding goodbye to Frank, she breaks down and prepares to perform her own vacuum aspiration abortion, which proves fatal. Shep goes to the hospital to support Frank, who hysterically tells him, "she did it to herself." April dies in the hospital due to complications following the abortion.
A new couple, the Braces, buy the house and we hear Milly telling the story of the Wheelers to them, relating how Frank moved to the city and is still working with computers, devoting every spare moment of his life to his children. Shep, harboring both sadness over April's death as well as guilt for his fling with her, quietly tells Milly he doesn't want to talk about the Wheelers anymore. Milly agrees.
In the final scene, Helen tells Howard she thinks the Braces are the first people she has ever found suitable for the home. Howard asks why she does not give credit to the Wheelers, and she says they were too whimsical, trying, and neurotic. As she continues discussing what she did not like about the Wheelers, Howard, not wanting to be rude but really not wanting to hear any more either, turns off his hearing aid and Helen's voice fades out.
Cast[edit]
Leonardo DiCaprio as Frank Wheeler
Kate Winslet as April Wheeler
Dylan Baker as Jack Ordway
Zoe Kazan as Maureen Grube
Kathy Bates as Helen Givings
Michael Shannon as John Givings, Jr.
Kathryn Hahn as Milly Campbell
David Harbour as Shep Campbell
Max Casella as Ed Small
Richard Easton as Howard Givings
Jay O. Sanders as Bart Pollock
Ryan Simpkins as Jennifer Wheeler
Ty Simpkins as Michael Wheeler
Development[edit]
After Richard Yates' novel was published in 1961, director John Frankenheimer considered filming it, but opted to make The Manchurian Candidate instead.[2] Samuel Goldwyn Jr., expressed an interest in making it into a film but others in his studio convinced him that it lacked commercial prospects.[3] In 1965, producer Albert S. Ruddy bought the rights but did not like the book's ending, and wanted to obscure April's death with "tricky camerawork".[3] He became involved in adapting The Godfather and, five years later, while a writer-in-residence at Wichita State University, Yates offered to adapt his work for the screen. Ruddy had other projects lined up at the time and demurred, eventually selling the rights to actor Patrick O'Neal. The actor loved the book and spent the rest of his life trying to finish a workable screenplay.[3] Yates read O'Neal's treatment of his novel and found it "godawful", but O'Neal refused the writer's repeated offers to buy back the rights. Yates died in 1992, O'Neal two years later.[2]
The project remained in limbo until 2001 when Todd Field expressed interest in adapting it for the screen. However, when told by the O'Neal estate he would be required to shoot O'Neal's script as written, Field stepped away from the material and opted to make Little Children instead.[4] David Thompson eventually purchased the rights for BBC Films.[5] In March 2007, BBC Films established a partnership with DreamWorks, and the rights to the film's worldwide distribution were assigned to Paramount Pictures, owner of DreamWorks. On 14 February 2008, Paramount announced that Paramount Vantage was "taking over distribution duties on Revolutionary Road".[6] The BBC hired Justin Haythe to write the screenplay because, according to the screenwriter, he was "hugely affordable".[3]
Kate Winslet sent producer Scott Rudin the script and he told her that her then husband, director Sam Mendes, would be perfect to direct it.[3] She gave Mendes Yates' novel and told him, "I really want to play this part".[7] He read Haythe's script and then the book in quick succession. Haythe's first draft was very faithful to the novel, using large parts of Yates' own language, but Mendes told him to find ways to externalize what Frank and April do not say to each other.[3]
Once Leonardo DiCaprio agreed to do the film, it went almost immediately into production.[3] DiCaprio said that he saw his character as "unheroic" and "slightly cowardly" and that he was "willing to be just a product of his environment".[8] DiCaprio prepared for the role by watching several documentaries about the 1950s and the origin of suburbs. He said that the film was not meant to be a romance and that he and Winslet intentionally avoided films that show them in romantic roles since Titanic.[8] Both actors were reluctant to make films similar to Titanic because "we just knew it would be a fundamental mistake to try to repeat any of those themes".[9] To prepare for the role, Winslet read The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan.[10]
Mendes had the cast rehearse for three-and-a-half weeks before principal photography and shot everything in sequence and on location.[11] Actor Michael Shannon said that he did not feel that on the set of the film there were any stars, but "a group of people united by a passion for the material and wanting to honor the book".[12] He said that Winslet and DiCaprio could only make such a good performance as a couple because they had developed a friendship since their work on Titanic. For Shannon, it was more important to prepare for the moment when he walked on the set than being concerned about the movie stars he was working with.[12] On the fight scenes between him and Winslet, DiCaprio said, "So much of what happens between Frank and April in this film is what's left unsaid. I actually found it a real joy to do those fight scenes because finally, these people were letting each other have it."[9] The shoot was so emotionally and physically exhausting for DiCaprio that he postponed his next film for two months.[11]
Mendes wanted to create a claustrophobic dynamic and shot all of the Wheeler house interiors in an actual house in Darien, Connecticut. DiCaprio remembers, "it was many months in this house and there was no escaping the environment. I think it fed into the performances." They could not film in a period accurate house because it would have been too small to shoot inside.[13] Production Designer Kristi Zea is responsible for the "iconic, nostalgic images of quaint Americana", although she says that was "absolutely the antithesis of what we wanted to do".[13] Zea chose for the set of this film furnishings that "middle-class America would be buying at that time".[13]
During the post-production phase, Mendes cut 18 scenes, or 20 minutes to achieve a less literal version that he saw as more in the spirit of Yates' novel.[3]
Reaction[edit]
Revolutionary Road had a limited release in the United States at three theatres on December 26, 2008, and a wide release at 1,058 theatres on January 23, 2009. Revolutionary Road has earned $22.9 million at the domestic box office and $51.7 million internationally for a worldwide total of $74.6 million.[1]
Critical reception[edit]
Revolutionary Road has received generally positive reviews from critics.
Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said:
“ It takes the skill of stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio and director Sam Mendes to get this film to a place where it involves and moves us—which it finally does—but it is a near thing... Justin Haythe's screenplay does many good things, but it can't escape the arch lingo of the time... and that in turn makes the film's concerns initially feel dated and outmoded as well... Encouraged by Mendes' artful direction, his gift for eliciting naturalness, the core of this film finally cries out to us today, makes us see that the notion of characters struggling with life, with the despair of betraying their best selves because of what society will or won't allow, is as gripping and relevant now as it ever was. Or ever will be.[14] ”
Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News said:
“ [the film] comes close but falls short of capturing Richard Yates' terrific novel... the movie—two-thirds Mad Men, one-third American Beauty, with a John Cheever chaser—works best when focusing on the personal. Thankfully, it's there that Mendes and screenwriter Justin Haythe catch some of Yates' weighty ideas, and where Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet succeed in doing the heavy lifting... DiCaprio, round-shouldered and sleepy-eyed, and Winslet, watchful and alert, raise up each other and everything around them. Never once shadowed by Titanic, they suggest, often wordlessly, the box the Wheelers have found themselves in. Whereas the novel is told mostly from Frank's viewpoint, the movie is just as much April's, and Winslet, whether fighting back or fighting back tears, is sensational.[15] ”
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave Revolutionary Road four stars out of four, commending the acting and screenplay and calling the film "so good it is devastating". He said of Winslet and DiCaprio, "they are so good, they stop being actors and become the people I grew up around."[16]
Todd McCarthy of Variety called the film "faithful, intelligent, admirably acted, superbly shot" and added, "It also offers a near-perfect case study of the ways in which film is incapable of capturing certain crucial literary qualities, in this case the very things that elevate the book from being a merely insightful study of a deteriorating marriage into a remarkable one... Even when the dramatic temperature is cranked up too high, the picture's underpinnings seem only partly present, to the point where one suspects that what it's reaching for dramatically might be all but unattainable—perhaps approachable only by Pinter at his peak."[17] McCarthy later significantly qualified his review, calling Revolutionary Road "problematic" and that it "has some issues that just won't go away".[18] He concludes that Revolutionary Road suffers in comparison to Billy Wilder's The Apartment and Richard Quine's Strangers When We Meet because of its "narrow vision", even arguing that the television series Mad Men handles the issues of conformity, frustration, and hypocrisy "with more panache and precision".[18]
David Ansen of Newsweek said the film "is lushly, impeccably mounted—perhaps too much so. Mendes, a superb stage director, has an innately theatrical style: everything pops off the screen a little bigger and bolder than life, but the effect, rather than intensifying the emotions, calls attention to itself. Instead of losing myself in the story, I often felt on the outside looking in, appreciating the craftsmanship, but one step removed from the agony on display. Revolutionary Road is impressive, but it feels like a classic encased in amber."[19]
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly graded the film B+ and commented:
“ The film is lavishly dark—some might say too dark—yet I'd suggest it has a different limitation: For all its shattering domestic discord, there's something remote and aestheticized about it. April brings a private well of conflict to her middle-class prison, but Winslet is so meticulous in her telegraphed despair that she intrigues us, moves us, yet never quite touches our unguarded nerves.[20] ”
Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter called the film a "didactic, emotionally overblown critique of the soulless suburbs" and added, "Revolutionary Road is, essentially, a repeat for Mendes of American Beauty... Once more, the suburbs are well-upholstered nightmares and its denizens clueless—other than one estranged male. Clearly, this environment attracts the dramatic sensibilities of this theater-trained director. Everything is boldly indicated to the audience from arch acting styles to the wink-wink, nod-nod of its design. Indeed his actors play the subtext with such fury that the text virtually disappears. Subtlety is not one of Mendes' strong suits."[21]
Rex Reed of The New York Observer called the film "a flawless, moment-to-moment autopsy of a marriage on the rocks and an indictment of the American Dream gone sour" and "a profound, intelligent and deeply heartfelt work that raises the bar of filmmaking to exhilarating."[22]
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called the film "raw and riveting" and commented, "Directed with extraordinary skill by Sam Mendes, who warms the chill in the Yates-faithful script by Justin Haythe, the film is a tough road well worth traveling . . . DiCaprio is in peak form, bringing layers of buried emotion to a defeated man. And the glorious Winslet defines what makes an actress great, blazing commitment to a character and the range to make every nuance felt."[23]
Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle voted the film as his best of 2008. He commented, "Finally, this is a movie that can and should be seen more than once. Watch it one time through her eyes. Watch it again through his eyes. It works both ways. It works in every way. This is a great American film."[24]
It holds a 69% rating from critics on review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 190 reviews, with the consensus being "Brilliantly acted and emotionally powerful, Revolutionary Road is a handsome adaptation of Richard Yates' celebrated novel".[25] Metacritic lists it with a 69 out of 100, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 38 reviews.[26]
Top ten lists[edit]
The film appeared on several critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008.[27]
1st – Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
2nd – Rex Reed, New York Observer
6th – Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News
6th – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
7th – Lou Lumenick, New York Post
8th – James Berardinelli, ReelViews
9th – David Denby, The New Yorker
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times (Ebert gave an alphabetical top 20 list)
Accolades[edit]

Awards[28]

Award
Category
Recipient(s)
Outcome
Academy Awards Best Art Direction Debra Schutt and Kristi Zea Nominated
Best Costume Design Albert Wolsky Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Michael Shannon Nominated
BAFTA Awards Best Actress Kate Winslet Nominated
Best Costume Design Albert Wolsky Nominated
Best Production Design Debra Schutt and Kristi Zea Nominated
Best Adapted Screenplay Justin Haythe Nominated
Costume Designers Guild Best Costume Design – Period Film Albert Wolsky Nominated
Golden Globe Awards Best Motion Picture – Drama  Nominated
Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama Leonardo DiCaprio Nominated
Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Kate Winslet Won
Best Director – Motion Picture Sam Mendes Nominated
29th London Film Critics Circle Awards Actress of the Year Kate Winslet
 (for Revolutionary Road and The Reader) Won
Screen Actors Guild Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role – Motion Picture Kate Winslet Nominated
Satellite Awards Top 10 Films of 2008  Won
Best Art Direction and Production Design Kristi Zea, Teresa Carriker-Thayer, John Kasarda, and Nicholas Lundy Nominated
Best Film – Drama  Nominated
Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama Leonardo DiCaprio Nominated
Best Adapted Screenplay Justin Haythe Nominated
Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Michael Shannon Won
St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Best Actress Kate Winslet Won
Vancouver Film Critics Circle Best Actress Kate Winslet
 (for Revolutionary Road and The Reader) Won
According to Academy rules, an actor or actress may receive only one nomination per category, and due to the difference in rules between the Golden Globes and Academy Awards, Kate Winslet's role in The Reader was considered a leading one by the Academy, while the Golden Globe regarded it a supporting role. So, as Winslet's performance in The Reader had been nominated for Best Actress in 2008 by the Academy, her performance in Revolutionary Road couldn't be nominated.[citation needed]
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b "Revolutionary Road (2008)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-08-16.
2.^ Jump up to: a b Bailey, Blake (2007-06-26). "Revolutionary Road—the Movie". Slate.com. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
3.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h McGrath, Charles (2008-12-14). "Kate! Leo! Gloom! Doom! Can It Work?". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
4.Jump up ^ "Revolutionary Road (2008) – Trivia". IMDb. Retrieved 2011-05-20.
5.Jump up ^ McClintock, Pamela (2007-03-22). "DiCaprio, Winslet to Star in Road". Variety. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
6.Jump up ^ McClintock, Pamela (2008-02-14). "New Dates for Eight Under Par". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
7.Jump up ^ Knegt, Peter (2008-12-22). "Plumbing the Depths of Revolutionary Road: Sam Mendes on Yates, Kate, and the Pressures of Awards". indieWIRE. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
8.^ Jump up to: a b Guzman, Rafer (2009-01-19). "In Revolutionary Road, Leo DiCaprio just an ordinary guy". Slate.com. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
9.^ Jump up to: a b Wong, Grace (2009-01-23). "DiCaprio reveals joys of fighting with Winslet". CNN. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
10.Jump up ^ Cochrane, Kira (2008-12-19). "I did have moments where I'd say, Oh my God ...". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 2009-05-27.
11.^ Jump up to: a b Wood, Gaby (2008-12-14). "How Sam became The Man". The Observer. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
12.^ Jump up to: a b Copley, Rich (2009-01-22). "Michael Shannon's small part in Revolutionary Road made a big impact". The State. Retrieved 2009-05-27.[dead link]
13.^ Jump up to: a b c Hillis, Aaron (2009-01-06). "Revolutionary Road – Evoke an era of suburban life without overdoing it". Variety. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
14.Jump up ^ Turan, Kenneth. "'Revolutionary Road': Strong Performances Steer This 1950s Marital Drama Out of a Period-Picture Trap." Los Angeles Times. December 26, 2008.[dead link]
15.Jump up ^ Joe Neumaier (2008-12-24). "Neumaier, Joe. "Revolutionary Road: Beauty is in the Details of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet's Reunion Movie 'Revolutionary Road'." New York Daily News. December 24, 2008". NYDailyNews.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
16.Jump up ^ Roger Ebert (2008-12-30). "Revolutionary Road :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2009-01-23.
17.Jump up ^ By (2008-11-17). "McCarthy, Todd. "Revolutionary Road." Variety. November 17, 2008". Variety.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.[dead link]
18.^ Jump up to: a b "McCarthy, Todd. "'50s Melodrama Hard to Capture on Film," Variety. January 8, 2009". Variety.com. 2009-01-08. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
19.Jump up ^ David Ansen (2008-11-28). "Ansen, David. "Revolutionary Road." Newsweek. November 28, 2008". NewsWeek.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
20.Jump up ^ Owen Gleiberman (2008-12-24). "Gleiberman, Owen. "Revolutionary Road." Entertainment Weekly. November 28, 2008". EW.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
21.Jump up ^ Honeycutt, Kirk (2008-11-17). ""Film Review: Revolutionary Road." The Hollywood Reporter. November 17, 2008". HollywoodReporter.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.[dead link]
22.Jump up ^ "Reed, Rex. "Love Asunder." New York Observer. December 16, 2008". Observer.com. 2008-12-16. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
23.Jump up ^ Travers, Peter. "Revolutionary Road." Rolling Stone. December 25, 2008.[dead link]
24.Jump up ^ Mick LaSalle, Chronicle Movie Critic (2009-01-02). "LaSalle, Mick. "Movie Review: 'Revolutionary Road' Year's Best." San Francisco Chronicle. January 2, 2009". SFGate.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
25.Jump up ^ "'Revolutionary Road' Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. IGN. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
26.Jump up ^ "'Revolutionary Road' Reviews, Ratings, Credits". Metacritic. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
27.Jump up ^ "Metacritic: 2008 Film Critic Top Ten Lists". Metacritic. Retrieved January 11, 2009.[dead link]
28.Jump up ^ IMDb: Awards for Revolutionary Road Retrieved 2012-01-03
External links[edit]
Official website
Revolutionary Road at the Internet Movie Database
Revolutionary Road at allmovie
Revolutionary Road at Rotten Tomatoes
Revolutionary Road at Metacritic
Revolutionary Road at Box Office Mojo


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Revolutionary Road (film)
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Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary road.jpg
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
Sam Mendes
Produced by
Bobby Cohen
Sam Mendes
Scott Rudin
Screenplay by
Justin Haythe
Based on
Revolutionary Road
 by Richard Yates
Starring
Leonardo DiCaprio
Kate Winslet
Michael Shannon
Kathryn Hahn
David Harbour
Kathy Bates
Ty Simpkins
Music by
Thomas Newman
Cinematography
Roger Deakins
Editing by
Tariq Anwar
Studio
BBC Films & DreamWorks
Distributed by
Paramount Vantage (US)
UIP (most of Europe)
Release dates
15 December 2008 (United States)
30 January 2009 (United Kingdom)

Running time
119 minutes
Country
United States
 United Kingdom
Language
English
Budget
$35 million
Box office
$75,226,021[1]
Revolutionary Road is a 2008 American drama film, based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Richard Yates, directed by Sam Mendes. This is the second collaboration between Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, who previously co-starred in Titanic. Her performance earned Kate Winslet a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, and the film was nominated for a further three Golden Globes, four BAFTAs and three Oscars.
The film premiered in Los Angeles on 15 December 2008, followed by a limited U.S. release on 26 December 2008 and a wide U.S. release on 23 January 2009. In most other countries it was released between 15 and 30 January 2009.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Development
4 Reaction 4.1 Critical reception
4.2 Top ten lists
5 Accolades
6 References
7 External links

Plot[edit]
In the late 1940s, Frank Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio) meets April (Kate Winslet) at a party. He is a longshoreman, hoping to be a cashier; she wants to be an actress. Frank later secures a sales position with Knox Machines, for which his father worked for twenty years, and he and April marry. The Wheelers move to 115 Revolutionary Road in suburban Connecticut when April becomes pregnant. Frank and April settle into the normality of suburban life while bringing up their children, Michael and Jennifer.
The couple becomes close friends with their realtor Helen Givings (Kathy Bates) and her husband Howard Givings (Richard Easton), and neighbor Milly Campbell (Kathryn Hahn) and her husband Shep (David Harbour). To their friends, the Wheelers are the perfect couple, but their relationship is troubled. April fails to make a career out of acting, while Frank hates the tedium of his work. April wants new scenery and a chance to support the family so that Frank can find his passion.
April recalls how Frank talked about moving back to Paris. With a failed career, she believes Paris is the solution to their problems, and she suggests they move. Initially Frank laughs off the idea, but then begins considering it. The only person who understands the Wheelers' decision is Helen's troubled son, John (Michael Shannon). Frank admits to John that they indeed are running away from the "hopeless emptiness" of their repetitive lifestyle.
As the couple prepares to move, they are forced to reconsider. Frank, propelled by a carefree attitude brought on by the thought of Paris, turns in a sarcastic piece of work to his boss. To his surprise, his work is considered brilliant by company executives and he is offered a promotion. April becomes pregnant again, and Frank discovers she is contemplating having an abortion. He is furious and starts screaming at April, leading to a serious altercation. April is desperate to move to Paris, but Frank is disgusted by the thought of abortion, causing him to feel that moving to Paris is an unrealistic dream. The next day Frank takes the promotion and tries to accept his uneventful life. At the end of an evening at a jazz bar with Milly and Shep, a car blocks in one of the cars the couples came in. Milly is intoxicated and April suggests that Frank drive Milly home to release the babysitters at each house, while she and Shep wait for the blocking car's driver to return. Shep and April re-enter the jazz bar, and eventually dance feverishly with each other, then have sexual intercourse in the car. Shep professes his long-held love for April, but she rejects his interest.
The following day, Frank confesses to having had an affair with a female assistant at his office, hoping to reconcile with April. To his surprise, April responds apathetically and tells him it does not matter as her love for him has gone, which he does not believe. The Givingses come over for dinner, and Frank announces to the guests that their plans have changed, as April is pregnant. John harshly lambasts Frank for crushing April's hope as well as his acceptance of his circumstances, accusing Frank of intentionally getting April pregnant to destroy the idea of moving to Paris, and saying that April allowed him to do it so that she would feel her husband was "a real man". Frank gets angry, nearly attacks John, and the Givings hurry out. Afterwards, Frank and April have a severe verbal altercation, after which April flees the house.
Frank spends the night in a drunken stupor but is shocked to find April in the kitchen the next morning, calmly making breakfast. The couple have a pleasant breakfast, with April asking Frank about work and Frank seeming enthusiastic as he describes how the large computer purchase he is making will help many businesses. April's mood seems to have improved, but after bidding goodbye to Frank, she breaks down and prepares to perform her own vacuum aspiration abortion, which proves fatal. Shep goes to the hospital to support Frank, who hysterically tells him, "she did it to herself." April dies in the hospital due to complications following the abortion.
A new couple, the Braces, buy the house and we hear Milly telling the story of the Wheelers to them, relating how Frank moved to the city and is still working with computers, devoting every spare moment of his life to his children. Shep, harboring both sadness over April's death as well as guilt for his fling with her, quietly tells Milly he doesn't want to talk about the Wheelers anymore. Milly agrees.
In the final scene, Helen tells Howard she thinks the Braces are the first people she has ever found suitable for the home. Howard asks why she does not give credit to the Wheelers, and she says they were too whimsical, trying, and neurotic. As she continues discussing what she did not like about the Wheelers, Howard, not wanting to be rude but really not wanting to hear any more either, turns off his hearing aid and Helen's voice fades out.
Cast[edit]
Leonardo DiCaprio as Frank Wheeler
Kate Winslet as April Wheeler
Dylan Baker as Jack Ordway
Zoe Kazan as Maureen Grube
Kathy Bates as Helen Givings
Michael Shannon as John Givings, Jr.
Kathryn Hahn as Milly Campbell
David Harbour as Shep Campbell
Max Casella as Ed Small
Richard Easton as Howard Givings
Jay O. Sanders as Bart Pollock
Ryan Simpkins as Jennifer Wheeler
Ty Simpkins as Michael Wheeler
Development[edit]
After Richard Yates' novel was published in 1961, director John Frankenheimer considered filming it, but opted to make The Manchurian Candidate instead.[2] Samuel Goldwyn Jr., expressed an interest in making it into a film but others in his studio convinced him that it lacked commercial prospects.[3] In 1965, producer Albert S. Ruddy bought the rights but did not like the book's ending, and wanted to obscure April's death with "tricky camerawork".[3] He became involved in adapting The Godfather and, five years later, while a writer-in-residence at Wichita State University, Yates offered to adapt his work for the screen. Ruddy had other projects lined up at the time and demurred, eventually selling the rights to actor Patrick O'Neal. The actor loved the book and spent the rest of his life trying to finish a workable screenplay.[3] Yates read O'Neal's treatment of his novel and found it "godawful", but O'Neal refused the writer's repeated offers to buy back the rights. Yates died in 1992, O'Neal two years later.[2]
The project remained in limbo until 2001 when Todd Field expressed interest in adapting it for the screen. However, when told by the O'Neal estate he would be required to shoot O'Neal's script as written, Field stepped away from the material and opted to make Little Children instead.[4] David Thompson eventually purchased the rights for BBC Films.[5] In March 2007, BBC Films established a partnership with DreamWorks, and the rights to the film's worldwide distribution were assigned to Paramount Pictures, owner of DreamWorks. On 14 February 2008, Paramount announced that Paramount Vantage was "taking over distribution duties on Revolutionary Road".[6] The BBC hired Justin Haythe to write the screenplay because, according to the screenwriter, he was "hugely affordable".[3]
Kate Winslet sent producer Scott Rudin the script and he told her that her then husband, director Sam Mendes, would be perfect to direct it.[3] She gave Mendes Yates' novel and told him, "I really want to play this part".[7] He read Haythe's script and then the book in quick succession. Haythe's first draft was very faithful to the novel, using large parts of Yates' own language, but Mendes told him to find ways to externalize what Frank and April do not say to each other.[3]
Once Leonardo DiCaprio agreed to do the film, it went almost immediately into production.[3] DiCaprio said that he saw his character as "unheroic" and "slightly cowardly" and that he was "willing to be just a product of his environment".[8] DiCaprio prepared for the role by watching several documentaries about the 1950s and the origin of suburbs. He said that the film was not meant to be a romance and that he and Winslet intentionally avoided films that show them in romantic roles since Titanic.[8] Both actors were reluctant to make films similar to Titanic because "we just knew it would be a fundamental mistake to try to repeat any of those themes".[9] To prepare for the role, Winslet read The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan.[10]
Mendes had the cast rehearse for three-and-a-half weeks before principal photography and shot everything in sequence and on location.[11] Actor Michael Shannon said that he did not feel that on the set of the film there were any stars, but "a group of people united by a passion for the material and wanting to honor the book".[12] He said that Winslet and DiCaprio could only make such a good performance as a couple because they had developed a friendship since their work on Titanic. For Shannon, it was more important to prepare for the moment when he walked on the set than being concerned about the movie stars he was working with.[12] On the fight scenes between him and Winslet, DiCaprio said, "So much of what happens between Frank and April in this film is what's left unsaid. I actually found it a real joy to do those fight scenes because finally, these people were letting each other have it."[9] The shoot was so emotionally and physically exhausting for DiCaprio that he postponed his next film for two months.[11]
Mendes wanted to create a claustrophobic dynamic and shot all of the Wheeler house interiors in an actual house in Darien, Connecticut. DiCaprio remembers, "it was many months in this house and there was no escaping the environment. I think it fed into the performances." They could not film in a period accurate house because it would have been too small to shoot inside.[13] Production Designer Kristi Zea is responsible for the "iconic, nostalgic images of quaint Americana", although she says that was "absolutely the antithesis of what we wanted to do".[13] Zea chose for the set of this film furnishings that "middle-class America would be buying at that time".[13]
During the post-production phase, Mendes cut 18 scenes, or 20 minutes to achieve a less literal version that he saw as more in the spirit of Yates' novel.[3]
Reaction[edit]
Revolutionary Road had a limited release in the United States at three theatres on December 26, 2008, and a wide release at 1,058 theatres on January 23, 2009. Revolutionary Road has earned $22.9 million at the domestic box office and $51.7 million internationally for a worldwide total of $74.6 million.[1]
Critical reception[edit]
Revolutionary Road has received generally positive reviews from critics.
Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said:
“ It takes the skill of stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio and director Sam Mendes to get this film to a place where it involves and moves us—which it finally does—but it is a near thing... Justin Haythe's screenplay does many good things, but it can't escape the arch lingo of the time... and that in turn makes the film's concerns initially feel dated and outmoded as well... Encouraged by Mendes' artful direction, his gift for eliciting naturalness, the core of this film finally cries out to us today, makes us see that the notion of characters struggling with life, with the despair of betraying their best selves because of what society will or won't allow, is as gripping and relevant now as it ever was. Or ever will be.[14] ”
Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News said:
“ [the film] comes close but falls short of capturing Richard Yates' terrific novel... the movie—two-thirds Mad Men, one-third American Beauty, with a John Cheever chaser—works best when focusing on the personal. Thankfully, it's there that Mendes and screenwriter Justin Haythe catch some of Yates' weighty ideas, and where Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet succeed in doing the heavy lifting... DiCaprio, round-shouldered and sleepy-eyed, and Winslet, watchful and alert, raise up each other and everything around them. Never once shadowed by Titanic, they suggest, often wordlessly, the box the Wheelers have found themselves in. Whereas the novel is told mostly from Frank's viewpoint, the movie is just as much April's, and Winslet, whether fighting back or fighting back tears, is sensational.[15] ”
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave Revolutionary Road four stars out of four, commending the acting and screenplay and calling the film "so good it is devastating". He said of Winslet and DiCaprio, "they are so good, they stop being actors and become the people I grew up around."[16]
Todd McCarthy of Variety called the film "faithful, intelligent, admirably acted, superbly shot" and added, "It also offers a near-perfect case study of the ways in which film is incapable of capturing certain crucial literary qualities, in this case the very things that elevate the book from being a merely insightful study of a deteriorating marriage into a remarkable one... Even when the dramatic temperature is cranked up too high, the picture's underpinnings seem only partly present, to the point where one suspects that what it's reaching for dramatically might be all but unattainable—perhaps approachable only by Pinter at his peak."[17] McCarthy later significantly qualified his review, calling Revolutionary Road "problematic" and that it "has some issues that just won't go away".[18] He concludes that Revolutionary Road suffers in comparison to Billy Wilder's The Apartment and Richard Quine's Strangers When We Meet because of its "narrow vision", even arguing that the television series Mad Men handles the issues of conformity, frustration, and hypocrisy "with more panache and precision".[18]
David Ansen of Newsweek said the film "is lushly, impeccably mounted—perhaps too much so. Mendes, a superb stage director, has an innately theatrical style: everything pops off the screen a little bigger and bolder than life, but the effect, rather than intensifying the emotions, calls attention to itself. Instead of losing myself in the story, I often felt on the outside looking in, appreciating the craftsmanship, but one step removed from the agony on display. Revolutionary Road is impressive, but it feels like a classic encased in amber."[19]
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly graded the film B+ and commented:
“ The film is lavishly dark—some might say too dark—yet I'd suggest it has a different limitation: For all its shattering domestic discord, there's something remote and aestheticized about it. April brings a private well of conflict to her middle-class prison, but Winslet is so meticulous in her telegraphed despair that she intrigues us, moves us, yet never quite touches our unguarded nerves.[20] ”
Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter called the film a "didactic, emotionally overblown critique of the soulless suburbs" and added, "Revolutionary Road is, essentially, a repeat for Mendes of American Beauty... Once more, the suburbs are well-upholstered nightmares and its denizens clueless—other than one estranged male. Clearly, this environment attracts the dramatic sensibilities of this theater-trained director. Everything is boldly indicated to the audience from arch acting styles to the wink-wink, nod-nod of its design. Indeed his actors play the subtext with such fury that the text virtually disappears. Subtlety is not one of Mendes' strong suits."[21]
Rex Reed of The New York Observer called the film "a flawless, moment-to-moment autopsy of a marriage on the rocks and an indictment of the American Dream gone sour" and "a profound, intelligent and deeply heartfelt work that raises the bar of filmmaking to exhilarating."[22]
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called the film "raw and riveting" and commented, "Directed with extraordinary skill by Sam Mendes, who warms the chill in the Yates-faithful script by Justin Haythe, the film is a tough road well worth traveling . . . DiCaprio is in peak form, bringing layers of buried emotion to a defeated man. And the glorious Winslet defines what makes an actress great, blazing commitment to a character and the range to make every nuance felt."[23]
Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle voted the film as his best of 2008. He commented, "Finally, this is a movie that can and should be seen more than once. Watch it one time through her eyes. Watch it again through his eyes. It works both ways. It works in every way. This is a great American film."[24]
It holds a 69% rating from critics on review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 190 reviews, with the consensus being "Brilliantly acted and emotionally powerful, Revolutionary Road is a handsome adaptation of Richard Yates' celebrated novel".[25] Metacritic lists it with a 69 out of 100, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 38 reviews.[26]
Top ten lists[edit]
The film appeared on several critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008.[27]
1st – Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
2nd – Rex Reed, New York Observer
6th – Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News
6th – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
7th – Lou Lumenick, New York Post
8th – James Berardinelli, ReelViews
9th – David Denby, The New Yorker
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times (Ebert gave an alphabetical top 20 list)
Accolades[edit]

Awards[28]

Award
Category
Recipient(s)
Outcome
Academy Awards Best Art Direction Debra Schutt and Kristi Zea Nominated
Best Costume Design Albert Wolsky Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Michael Shannon Nominated
BAFTA Awards Best Actress Kate Winslet Nominated
Best Costume Design Albert Wolsky Nominated
Best Production Design Debra Schutt and Kristi Zea Nominated
Best Adapted Screenplay Justin Haythe Nominated
Costume Designers Guild Best Costume Design – Period Film Albert Wolsky Nominated
Golden Globe Awards Best Motion Picture – Drama  Nominated
Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama Leonardo DiCaprio Nominated
Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Kate Winslet Won
Best Director – Motion Picture Sam Mendes Nominated
29th London Film Critics Circle Awards Actress of the Year Kate Winslet
 (for Revolutionary Road and The Reader) Won
Screen Actors Guild Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role – Motion Picture Kate Winslet Nominated
Satellite Awards Top 10 Films of 2008  Won
Best Art Direction and Production Design Kristi Zea, Teresa Carriker-Thayer, John Kasarda, and Nicholas Lundy Nominated
Best Film – Drama  Nominated
Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama Leonardo DiCaprio Nominated
Best Adapted Screenplay Justin Haythe Nominated
Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Michael Shannon Won
St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Best Actress Kate Winslet Won
Vancouver Film Critics Circle Best Actress Kate Winslet
 (for Revolutionary Road and The Reader) Won
According to Academy rules, an actor or actress may receive only one nomination per category, and due to the difference in rules between the Golden Globes and Academy Awards, Kate Winslet's role in The Reader was considered a leading one by the Academy, while the Golden Globe regarded it a supporting role. So, as Winslet's performance in The Reader had been nominated for Best Actress in 2008 by the Academy, her performance in Revolutionary Road couldn't be nominated.[citation needed]
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b "Revolutionary Road (2008)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-08-16.
2.^ Jump up to: a b Bailey, Blake (2007-06-26). "Revolutionary Road—the Movie". Slate.com. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
3.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h McGrath, Charles (2008-12-14). "Kate! Leo! Gloom! Doom! Can It Work?". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
4.Jump up ^ "Revolutionary Road (2008) – Trivia". IMDb. Retrieved 2011-05-20.
5.Jump up ^ McClintock, Pamela (2007-03-22). "DiCaprio, Winslet to Star in Road". Variety. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
6.Jump up ^ McClintock, Pamela (2008-02-14). "New Dates for Eight Under Par". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
7.Jump up ^ Knegt, Peter (2008-12-22). "Plumbing the Depths of Revolutionary Road: Sam Mendes on Yates, Kate, and the Pressures of Awards". indieWIRE. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
8.^ Jump up to: a b Guzman, Rafer (2009-01-19). "In Revolutionary Road, Leo DiCaprio just an ordinary guy". Slate.com. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
9.^ Jump up to: a b Wong, Grace (2009-01-23). "DiCaprio reveals joys of fighting with Winslet". CNN. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
10.Jump up ^ Cochrane, Kira (2008-12-19). "I did have moments where I'd say, Oh my God ...". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 2009-05-27.
11.^ Jump up to: a b Wood, Gaby (2008-12-14). "How Sam became The Man". The Observer. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
12.^ Jump up to: a b Copley, Rich (2009-01-22). "Michael Shannon's small part in Revolutionary Road made a big impact". The State. Retrieved 2009-05-27.[dead link]
13.^ Jump up to: a b c Hillis, Aaron (2009-01-06). "Revolutionary Road – Evoke an era of suburban life without overdoing it". Variety. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
14.Jump up ^ Turan, Kenneth. "'Revolutionary Road': Strong Performances Steer This 1950s Marital Drama Out of a Period-Picture Trap." Los Angeles Times. December 26, 2008.[dead link]
15.Jump up ^ Joe Neumaier (2008-12-24). "Neumaier, Joe. "Revolutionary Road: Beauty is in the Details of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet's Reunion Movie 'Revolutionary Road'." New York Daily News. December 24, 2008". NYDailyNews.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
16.Jump up ^ Roger Ebert (2008-12-30). "Revolutionary Road :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2009-01-23.
17.Jump up ^ By (2008-11-17). "McCarthy, Todd. "Revolutionary Road." Variety. November 17, 2008". Variety.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.[dead link]
18.^ Jump up to: a b "McCarthy, Todd. "'50s Melodrama Hard to Capture on Film," Variety. January 8, 2009". Variety.com. 2009-01-08. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
19.Jump up ^ David Ansen (2008-11-28). "Ansen, David. "Revolutionary Road." Newsweek. November 28, 2008". NewsWeek.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
20.Jump up ^ Owen Gleiberman (2008-12-24). "Gleiberman, Owen. "Revolutionary Road." Entertainment Weekly. November 28, 2008". EW.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
21.Jump up ^ Honeycutt, Kirk (2008-11-17). ""Film Review: Revolutionary Road." The Hollywood Reporter. November 17, 2008". HollywoodReporter.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.[dead link]
22.Jump up ^ "Reed, Rex. "Love Asunder." New York Observer. December 16, 2008". Observer.com. 2008-12-16. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
23.Jump up ^ Travers, Peter. "Revolutionary Road." Rolling Stone. December 25, 2008.[dead link]
24.Jump up ^ Mick LaSalle, Chronicle Movie Critic (2009-01-02). "LaSalle, Mick. "Movie Review: 'Revolutionary Road' Year's Best." San Francisco Chronicle. January 2, 2009". SFGate.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
25.Jump up ^ "'Revolutionary Road' Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. IGN. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
26.Jump up ^ "'Revolutionary Road' Reviews, Ratings, Credits". Metacritic. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
27.Jump up ^ "Metacritic: 2008 Film Critic Top Ten Lists". Metacritic. Retrieved January 11, 2009.[dead link]
28.Jump up ^ IMDb: Awards for Revolutionary Road Retrieved 2012-01-03
External links[edit]
Official website
Revolutionary Road at the Internet Movie Database
Revolutionary Road at allmovie
Revolutionary Road at Rotten Tomatoes
Revolutionary Road at Metacritic
Revolutionary Road at Box Office Mojo


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Revolutionary Road (film)
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Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary road.jpg
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
Sam Mendes
Produced by
Bobby Cohen
Sam Mendes
Scott Rudin
Screenplay by
Justin Haythe
Based on
Revolutionary Road
 by Richard Yates
Starring
Leonardo DiCaprio
Kate Winslet
Michael Shannon
Kathryn Hahn
David Harbour
Kathy Bates
Ty Simpkins
Music by
Thomas Newman
Cinematography
Roger Deakins
Editing by
Tariq Anwar
Studio
BBC Films & DreamWorks
Distributed by
Paramount Vantage (US)
UIP (most of Europe)
Release dates
15 December 2008 (United States)
30 January 2009 (United Kingdom)

Running time
119 minutes
Country
United States
 United Kingdom
Language
English
Budget
$35 million
Box office
$75,226,021[1]
Revolutionary Road is a 2008 American drama film, based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Richard Yates, directed by Sam Mendes. This is the second collaboration between Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, who previously co-starred in Titanic. Her performance earned Kate Winslet a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, and the film was nominated for a further three Golden Globes, four BAFTAs and three Oscars.
The film premiered in Los Angeles on 15 December 2008, followed by a limited U.S. release on 26 December 2008 and a wide U.S. release on 23 January 2009. In most other countries it was released between 15 and 30 January 2009.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Development
4 Reaction 4.1 Critical reception
4.2 Top ten lists
5 Accolades
6 References
7 External links

Plot[edit]
In the late 1940s, Frank Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio) meets April (Kate Winslet) at a party. He is a longshoreman, hoping to be a cashier; she wants to be an actress. Frank later secures a sales position with Knox Machines, for which his father worked for twenty years, and he and April marry. The Wheelers move to 115 Revolutionary Road in suburban Connecticut when April becomes pregnant. Frank and April settle into the normality of suburban life while bringing up their children, Michael and Jennifer.
The couple becomes close friends with their realtor Helen Givings (Kathy Bates) and her husband Howard Givings (Richard Easton), and neighbor Milly Campbell (Kathryn Hahn) and her husband Shep (David Harbour). To their friends, the Wheelers are the perfect couple, but their relationship is troubled. April fails to make a career out of acting, while Frank hates the tedium of his work. April wants new scenery and a chance to support the family so that Frank can find his passion.
April recalls how Frank talked about moving back to Paris. With a failed career, she believes Paris is the solution to their problems, and she suggests they move. Initially Frank laughs off the idea, but then begins considering it. The only person who understands the Wheelers' decision is Helen's troubled son, John (Michael Shannon). Frank admits to John that they indeed are running away from the "hopeless emptiness" of their repetitive lifestyle.
As the couple prepares to move, they are forced to reconsider. Frank, propelled by a carefree attitude brought on by the thought of Paris, turns in a sarcastic piece of work to his boss. To his surprise, his work is considered brilliant by company executives and he is offered a promotion. April becomes pregnant again, and Frank discovers she is contemplating having an abortion. He is furious and starts screaming at April, leading to a serious altercation. April is desperate to move to Paris, but Frank is disgusted by the thought of abortion, causing him to feel that moving to Paris is an unrealistic dream. The next day Frank takes the promotion and tries to accept his uneventful life. At the end of an evening at a jazz bar with Milly and Shep, a car blocks in one of the cars the couples came in. Milly is intoxicated and April suggests that Frank drive Milly home to release the babysitters at each house, while she and Shep wait for the blocking car's driver to return. Shep and April re-enter the jazz bar, and eventually dance feverishly with each other, then have sexual intercourse in the car. Shep professes his long-held love for April, but she rejects his interest.
The following day, Frank confesses to having had an affair with a female assistant at his office, hoping to reconcile with April. To his surprise, April responds apathetically and tells him it does not matter as her love for him has gone, which he does not believe. The Givingses come over for dinner, and Frank announces to the guests that their plans have changed, as April is pregnant. John harshly lambasts Frank for crushing April's hope as well as his acceptance of his circumstances, accusing Frank of intentionally getting April pregnant to destroy the idea of moving to Paris, and saying that April allowed him to do it so that she would feel her husband was "a real man". Frank gets angry, nearly attacks John, and the Givings hurry out. Afterwards, Frank and April have a severe verbal altercation, after which April flees the house.
Frank spends the night in a drunken stupor but is shocked to find April in the kitchen the next morning, calmly making breakfast. The couple have a pleasant breakfast, with April asking Frank about work and Frank seeming enthusiastic as he describes how the large computer purchase he is making will help many businesses. April's mood seems to have improved, but after bidding goodbye to Frank, she breaks down and prepares to perform her own vacuum aspiration abortion, which proves fatal. Shep goes to the hospital to support Frank, who hysterically tells him, "she did it to herself." April dies in the hospital due to complications following the abortion.
A new couple, the Braces, buy the house and we hear Milly telling the story of the Wheelers to them, relating how Frank moved to the city and is still working with computers, devoting every spare moment of his life to his children. Shep, harboring both sadness over April's death as well as guilt for his fling with her, quietly tells Milly he doesn't want to talk about the Wheelers anymore. Milly agrees.
In the final scene, Helen tells Howard she thinks the Braces are the first people she has ever found suitable for the home. Howard asks why she does not give credit to the Wheelers, and she says they were too whimsical, trying, and neurotic. As she continues discussing what she did not like about the Wheelers, Howard, not wanting to be rude but really not wanting to hear any more either, turns off his hearing aid and Helen's voice fades out.
Cast[edit]
Leonardo DiCaprio as Frank Wheeler
Kate Winslet as April Wheeler
Dylan Baker as Jack Ordway
Zoe Kazan as Maureen Grube
Kathy Bates as Helen Givings
Michael Shannon as John Givings, Jr.
Kathryn Hahn as Milly Campbell
David Harbour as Shep Campbell
Max Casella as Ed Small
Richard Easton as Howard Givings
Jay O. Sanders as Bart Pollock
Ryan Simpkins as Jennifer Wheeler
Ty Simpkins as Michael Wheeler
Development[edit]
After Richard Yates' novel was published in 1961, director John Frankenheimer considered filming it, but opted to make The Manchurian Candidate instead.[2] Samuel Goldwyn Jr., expressed an interest in making it into a film but others in his studio convinced him that it lacked commercial prospects.[3] In 1965, producer Albert S. Ruddy bought the rights but did not like the book's ending, and wanted to obscure April's death with "tricky camerawork".[3] He became involved in adapting The Godfather and, five years later, while a writer-in-residence at Wichita State University, Yates offered to adapt his work for the screen. Ruddy had other projects lined up at the time and demurred, eventually selling the rights to actor Patrick O'Neal. The actor loved the book and spent the rest of his life trying to finish a workable screenplay.[3] Yates read O'Neal's treatment of his novel and found it "godawful", but O'Neal refused the writer's repeated offers to buy back the rights. Yates died in 1992, O'Neal two years later.[2]
The project remained in limbo until 2001 when Todd Field expressed interest in adapting it for the screen. However, when told by the O'Neal estate he would be required to shoot O'Neal's script as written, Field stepped away from the material and opted to make Little Children instead.[4] David Thompson eventually purchased the rights for BBC Films.[5] In March 2007, BBC Films established a partnership with DreamWorks, and the rights to the film's worldwide distribution were assigned to Paramount Pictures, owner of DreamWorks. On 14 February 2008, Paramount announced that Paramount Vantage was "taking over distribution duties on Revolutionary Road".[6] The BBC hired Justin Haythe to write the screenplay because, according to the screenwriter, he was "hugely affordable".[3]
Kate Winslet sent producer Scott Rudin the script and he told her that her then husband, director Sam Mendes, would be perfect to direct it.[3] She gave Mendes Yates' novel and told him, "I really want to play this part".[7] He read Haythe's script and then the book in quick succession. Haythe's first draft was very faithful to the novel, using large parts of Yates' own language, but Mendes told him to find ways to externalize what Frank and April do not say to each other.[3]
Once Leonardo DiCaprio agreed to do the film, it went almost immediately into production.[3] DiCaprio said that he saw his character as "unheroic" and "slightly cowardly" and that he was "willing to be just a product of his environment".[8] DiCaprio prepared for the role by watching several documentaries about the 1950s and the origin of suburbs. He said that the film was not meant to be a romance and that he and Winslet intentionally avoided films that show them in romantic roles since Titanic.[8] Both actors were reluctant to make films similar to Titanic because "we just knew it would be a fundamental mistake to try to repeat any of those themes".[9] To prepare for the role, Winslet read The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan.[10]
Mendes had the cast rehearse for three-and-a-half weeks before principal photography and shot everything in sequence and on location.[11] Actor Michael Shannon said that he did not feel that on the set of the film there were any stars, but "a group of people united by a passion for the material and wanting to honor the book".[12] He said that Winslet and DiCaprio could only make such a good performance as a couple because they had developed a friendship since their work on Titanic. For Shannon, it was more important to prepare for the moment when he walked on the set than being concerned about the movie stars he was working with.[12] On the fight scenes between him and Winslet, DiCaprio said, "So much of what happens between Frank and April in this film is what's left unsaid. I actually found it a real joy to do those fight scenes because finally, these people were letting each other have it."[9] The shoot was so emotionally and physically exhausting for DiCaprio that he postponed his next film for two months.[11]
Mendes wanted to create a claustrophobic dynamic and shot all of the Wheeler house interiors in an actual house in Darien, Connecticut. DiCaprio remembers, "it was many months in this house and there was no escaping the environment. I think it fed into the performances." They could not film in a period accurate house because it would have been too small to shoot inside.[13] Production Designer Kristi Zea is responsible for the "iconic, nostalgic images of quaint Americana", although she says that was "absolutely the antithesis of what we wanted to do".[13] Zea chose for the set of this film furnishings that "middle-class America would be buying at that time".[13]
During the post-production phase, Mendes cut 18 scenes, or 20 minutes to achieve a less literal version that he saw as more in the spirit of Yates' novel.[3]
Reaction[edit]
Revolutionary Road had a limited release in the United States at three theatres on December 26, 2008, and a wide release at 1,058 theatres on January 23, 2009. Revolutionary Road has earned $22.9 million at the domestic box office and $51.7 million internationally for a worldwide total of $74.6 million.[1]
Critical reception[edit]
Revolutionary Road has received generally positive reviews from critics.
Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said:
“ It takes the skill of stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio and director Sam Mendes to get this film to a place where it involves and moves us—which it finally does—but it is a near thing... Justin Haythe's screenplay does many good things, but it can't escape the arch lingo of the time... and that in turn makes the film's concerns initially feel dated and outmoded as well... Encouraged by Mendes' artful direction, his gift for eliciting naturalness, the core of this film finally cries out to us today, makes us see that the notion of characters struggling with life, with the despair of betraying their best selves because of what society will or won't allow, is as gripping and relevant now as it ever was. Or ever will be.[14] ”
Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News said:
“ [the film] comes close but falls short of capturing Richard Yates' terrific novel... the movie—two-thirds Mad Men, one-third American Beauty, with a John Cheever chaser—works best when focusing on the personal. Thankfully, it's there that Mendes and screenwriter Justin Haythe catch some of Yates' weighty ideas, and where Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet succeed in doing the heavy lifting... DiCaprio, round-shouldered and sleepy-eyed, and Winslet, watchful and alert, raise up each other and everything around them. Never once shadowed by Titanic, they suggest, often wordlessly, the box the Wheelers have found themselves in. Whereas the novel is told mostly from Frank's viewpoint, the movie is just as much April's, and Winslet, whether fighting back or fighting back tears, is sensational.[15] ”
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave Revolutionary Road four stars out of four, commending the acting and screenplay and calling the film "so good it is devastating". He said of Winslet and DiCaprio, "they are so good, they stop being actors and become the people I grew up around."[16]
Todd McCarthy of Variety called the film "faithful, intelligent, admirably acted, superbly shot" and added, "It also offers a near-perfect case study of the ways in which film is incapable of capturing certain crucial literary qualities, in this case the very things that elevate the book from being a merely insightful study of a deteriorating marriage into a remarkable one... Even when the dramatic temperature is cranked up too high, the picture's underpinnings seem only partly present, to the point where one suspects that what it's reaching for dramatically might be all but unattainable—perhaps approachable only by Pinter at his peak."[17] McCarthy later significantly qualified his review, calling Revolutionary Road "problematic" and that it "has some issues that just won't go away".[18] He concludes that Revolutionary Road suffers in comparison to Billy Wilder's The Apartment and Richard Quine's Strangers When We Meet because of its "narrow vision", even arguing that the television series Mad Men handles the issues of conformity, frustration, and hypocrisy "with more panache and precision".[18]
David Ansen of Newsweek said the film "is lushly, impeccably mounted—perhaps too much so. Mendes, a superb stage director, has an innately theatrical style: everything pops off the screen a little bigger and bolder than life, but the effect, rather than intensifying the emotions, calls attention to itself. Instead of losing myself in the story, I often felt on the outside looking in, appreciating the craftsmanship, but one step removed from the agony on display. Revolutionary Road is impressive, but it feels like a classic encased in amber."[19]
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly graded the film B+ and commented:
“ The film is lavishly dark—some might say too dark—yet I'd suggest it has a different limitation: For all its shattering domestic discord, there's something remote and aestheticized about it. April brings a private well of conflict to her middle-class prison, but Winslet is so meticulous in her telegraphed despair that she intrigues us, moves us, yet never quite touches our unguarded nerves.[20] ”
Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter called the film a "didactic, emotionally overblown critique of the soulless suburbs" and added, "Revolutionary Road is, essentially, a repeat for Mendes of American Beauty... Once more, the suburbs are well-upholstered nightmares and its denizens clueless—other than one estranged male. Clearly, this environment attracts the dramatic sensibilities of this theater-trained director. Everything is boldly indicated to the audience from arch acting styles to the wink-wink, nod-nod of its design. Indeed his actors play the subtext with such fury that the text virtually disappears. Subtlety is not one of Mendes' strong suits."[21]
Rex Reed of The New York Observer called the film "a flawless, moment-to-moment autopsy of a marriage on the rocks and an indictment of the American Dream gone sour" and "a profound, intelligent and deeply heartfelt work that raises the bar of filmmaking to exhilarating."[22]
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called the film "raw and riveting" and commented, "Directed with extraordinary skill by Sam Mendes, who warms the chill in the Yates-faithful script by Justin Haythe, the film is a tough road well worth traveling . . . DiCaprio is in peak form, bringing layers of buried emotion to a defeated man. And the glorious Winslet defines what makes an actress great, blazing commitment to a character and the range to make every nuance felt."[23]
Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle voted the film as his best of 2008. He commented, "Finally, this is a movie that can and should be seen more than once. Watch it one time through her eyes. Watch it again through his eyes. It works both ways. It works in every way. This is a great American film."[24]
It holds a 69% rating from critics on review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 190 reviews, with the consensus being "Brilliantly acted and emotionally powerful, Revolutionary Road is a handsome adaptation of Richard Yates' celebrated novel".[25] Metacritic lists it with a 69 out of 100, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 38 reviews.[26]
Top ten lists[edit]
The film appeared on several critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008.[27]
1st – Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
2nd – Rex Reed, New York Observer
6th – Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News
6th – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
7th – Lou Lumenick, New York Post
8th – James Berardinelli, ReelViews
9th – David Denby, The New Yorker
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times (Ebert gave an alphabetical top 20 list)
Accolades[edit]

Awards[28]

Award
Category
Recipient(s)
Outcome
Academy Awards Best Art Direction Debra Schutt and Kristi Zea Nominated
Best Costume Design Albert Wolsky Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Michael Shannon Nominated
BAFTA Awards Best Actress Kate Winslet Nominated
Best Costume Design Albert Wolsky Nominated
Best Production Design Debra Schutt and Kristi Zea Nominated
Best Adapted Screenplay Justin Haythe Nominated
Costume Designers Guild Best Costume Design – Period Film Albert Wolsky Nominated
Golden Globe Awards Best Motion Picture – Drama  Nominated
Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama Leonardo DiCaprio Nominated
Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Kate Winslet Won
Best Director – Motion Picture Sam Mendes Nominated
29th London Film Critics Circle Awards Actress of the Year Kate Winslet
 (for Revolutionary Road and The Reader) Won
Screen Actors Guild Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role – Motion Picture Kate Winslet Nominated
Satellite Awards Top 10 Films of 2008  Won
Best Art Direction and Production Design Kristi Zea, Teresa Carriker-Thayer, John Kasarda, and Nicholas Lundy Nominated
Best Film – Drama  Nominated
Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama Leonardo DiCaprio Nominated
Best Adapted Screenplay Justin Haythe Nominated
Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Michael Shannon Won
St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Best Actress Kate Winslet Won
Vancouver Film Critics Circle Best Actress Kate Winslet
 (for Revolutionary Road and The Reader) Won
According to Academy rules, an actor or actress may receive only one nomination per category, and due to the difference in rules between the Golden Globes and Academy Awards, Kate Winslet's role in The Reader was considered a leading one by the Academy, while the Golden Globe regarded it a supporting role. So, as Winslet's performance in The Reader had been nominated for Best Actress in 2008 by the Academy, her performance in Revolutionary Road couldn't be nominated.[citation needed]
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b "Revolutionary Road (2008)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-08-16.
2.^ Jump up to: a b Bailey, Blake (2007-06-26). "Revolutionary Road—the Movie". Slate.com. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
3.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h McGrath, Charles (2008-12-14). "Kate! Leo! Gloom! Doom! Can It Work?". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
4.Jump up ^ "Revolutionary Road (2008) – Trivia". IMDb. Retrieved 2011-05-20.
5.Jump up ^ McClintock, Pamela (2007-03-22). "DiCaprio, Winslet to Star in Road". Variety. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
6.Jump up ^ McClintock, Pamela (2008-02-14). "New Dates for Eight Under Par". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
7.Jump up ^ Knegt, Peter (2008-12-22). "Plumbing the Depths of Revolutionary Road: Sam Mendes on Yates, Kate, and the Pressures of Awards". indieWIRE. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
8.^ Jump up to: a b Guzman, Rafer (2009-01-19). "In Revolutionary Road, Leo DiCaprio just an ordinary guy". Slate.com. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
9.^ Jump up to: a b Wong, Grace (2009-01-23). "DiCaprio reveals joys of fighting with Winslet". CNN. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
10.Jump up ^ Cochrane, Kira (2008-12-19). "I did have moments where I'd say, Oh my God ...". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 2009-05-27.
11.^ Jump up to: a b Wood, Gaby (2008-12-14). "How Sam became The Man". The Observer. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
12.^ Jump up to: a b Copley, Rich (2009-01-22). "Michael Shannon's small part in Revolutionary Road made a big impact". The State. Retrieved 2009-05-27.[dead link]
13.^ Jump up to: a b c Hillis, Aaron (2009-01-06). "Revolutionary Road – Evoke an era of suburban life without overdoing it". Variety. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
14.Jump up ^ Turan, Kenneth. "'Revolutionary Road': Strong Performances Steer This 1950s Marital Drama Out of a Period-Picture Trap." Los Angeles Times. December 26, 2008.[dead link]
15.Jump up ^ Joe Neumaier (2008-12-24). "Neumaier, Joe. "Revolutionary Road: Beauty is in the Details of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet's Reunion Movie 'Revolutionary Road'." New York Daily News. December 24, 2008". NYDailyNews.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
16.Jump up ^ Roger Ebert (2008-12-30). "Revolutionary Road :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2009-01-23.
17.Jump up ^ By (2008-11-17). "McCarthy, Todd. "Revolutionary Road." Variety. November 17, 2008". Variety.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.[dead link]
18.^ Jump up to: a b "McCarthy, Todd. "'50s Melodrama Hard to Capture on Film," Variety. January 8, 2009". Variety.com. 2009-01-08. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
19.Jump up ^ David Ansen (2008-11-28). "Ansen, David. "Revolutionary Road." Newsweek. November 28, 2008". NewsWeek.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
20.Jump up ^ Owen Gleiberman (2008-12-24). "Gleiberman, Owen. "Revolutionary Road." Entertainment Weekly. November 28, 2008". EW.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
21.Jump up ^ Honeycutt, Kirk (2008-11-17). ""Film Review: Revolutionary Road." The Hollywood Reporter. November 17, 2008". HollywoodReporter.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.[dead link]
22.Jump up ^ "Reed, Rex. "Love Asunder." New York Observer. December 16, 2008". Observer.com. 2008-12-16. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
23.Jump up ^ Travers, Peter. "Revolutionary Road." Rolling Stone. December 25, 2008.[dead link]
24.Jump up ^ Mick LaSalle, Chronicle Movie Critic (2009-01-02). "LaSalle, Mick. "Movie Review: 'Revolutionary Road' Year's Best." San Francisco Chronicle. January 2, 2009". SFGate.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
25.Jump up ^ "'Revolutionary Road' Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. IGN. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
26.Jump up ^ "'Revolutionary Road' Reviews, Ratings, Credits". Metacritic. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
27.Jump up ^ "Metacritic: 2008 Film Critic Top Ten Lists". Metacritic. Retrieved January 11, 2009.[dead link]
28.Jump up ^ IMDb: Awards for Revolutionary Road Retrieved 2012-01-03
External links[edit]
Official website
Revolutionary Road at the Internet Movie Database
Revolutionary Road at allmovie
Revolutionary Road at Rotten Tomatoes
Revolutionary Road at Metacritic
Revolutionary Road at Box Office Mojo


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Films directed by Sam Mendes












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Categories: 2008 films
English-language films
2000s drama films
American films
British films
American romantic drama films
BBC Films films
DreamWorks films
Films about suburbia
Films based on novels
Films directed by Sam Mendes
Films featuring a Best Drama Actress Golden Globe winning performance
Films set in Connecticut
Films set in the 1940s
Films set in the 1950s
Films set in 1955
Films shot in Connecticut
Paramount Vantage films
Film scores by Thomas Newman










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