Revolutionary Road is a tough movie for a woman who grew up after the women’s movement of the 1970s to watch, but after watching it a couple of times I actually think that it should be required watching for all young women who think that feminism is irrelevant. (Disclaimer, I am a consultant to the studio and organized a blogger screening for the film.)
The film tells the story of April and Frank Wheeler living the post World War Two “American dream” that morphs into the American nightmare. It is the era described in the Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan the book that articulated for women the “problem with no name” which Kate Winslet read while preparing for her role as April. She stated in an interview: “It was the era of prescription medication, you know, and women really starting to believe …Maybe I’m crazy, because I don’t want this life, I think there’s something wrong with me.’” (The Guardian)
April and Frank were was supposed to be different. But they weren’t. They were exactly the same as everyone on their boring suburban street and that’s what was driving them both crazy. But the thing is that Frank had options and choices and given the fact that it is 1955, April did not. Frank went into the city everyday on the train with lots of other men to their boring jobs and April was stuck at home.
She had no choices, no options.
A scene that really shows April’s suffocation is when she takes out the garbage cans and positions them perfectly on the curb. She then looks up and sees all the other garbage cans perfectly positioned on the curbs up and down the street. Her face at seeing all the cans, the disbelief that this has become her life is palpable. Juxtapose that with the scene of Frank standing on the train smoking and breathing in the fresh air and the suburbs fly by. He’s free, she’s in a box.
April wants out and does her best to get herself and her family out but Frank, who can’t perceive the depths of her unhappiness because each day he escapes to his office and his lunches with the guys and his affair with a young woman who works in the office, is not in the same place. When April finds out she is pregnant for the third time it sends her over the edge. She knows that if she has another baby she is never, ever, getting out and she can’t bear it. Women took abortion decisions into their hands in the days before it became legal, and April performs a DIY abortion which leads to devastating consequences.
Winslet shows that she is the greatest actress of her generation in her portrayal of April Wheeler. She is able to raise Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance to another level and he should be thanking her for all his glowing notices. April is a real feminist hero as the film’s director Sam Mendes (and Winslet’s husband) said in an interview about the film. “She’s the only person in the movie that is big enough to face the truth. You know well this is not a movie about a woman who wants to go to Paris. It’s a movie about a woman who wants her life back and can still remember the dreams she once had and is finally wakening up, which a lot of people do in their 30s and 40s, who go, ‘How did I get here? This is not what I wanted.” (LA Times)
Revolutionary Road shows what life was like for women before feminism. It’s an important history lesson from the not too distant past. Watch it and read The Feminine Mystique and be thankful that there was a feminist movement or who knows what life would be like now.
‘I did have moments where I’d say, Oh my God …’ (The Guardian)
Wow. Yeah, I want to see this movie so bad. I agree that Kate Winslet is the greatest actress of her generation. She’s truly remarkable. I also want to see her in THE READER as well.
The new site looks good. And I can’t wait to see this film.
I just came upon your blog. I am so happy to find it. I am a film producer with the same exact belief that films for women, about women and by women are consistently ignored and I’m tired of it too! I am in post production on a romantic drama that is great for a female audience and we are having a hard time positioning it. Thanks for bringing our plight to the forefront and providing this great forum. I went to the World Premiere of Revolutionary Road and I loved this film. Kate Winslet was wonderful and I actually have a blog entry on how amazing I found the dialogue to be (allaboutindiefilmmaking.blogspot.com). Good luck on the new site!
Jane Kosek
Wonder Ent.
http://www.wonderentertainment.com
I am dying to see this film. Dying. I loved what you said about it needing it be required viewing for young women who think that feminism is irrelevant.
Hi Jane
Do you know about Stacey Parks and her Film Specific marketing services – http://www.FilmSpecific.com? As an indie filmmaker I’ve learned so much from her to lay alongside my experience and knowledge from other sources. So if you don’t know about her yet, maybe there’s some info she has that will help you position your film? (And I’m so pleased to know about you now, love what I learn on Women & Hollywood.) Good luck–
Although it was extremely well done, I found Revolutionary Road very depressing. Women have made tremendous progress, but there are many in this country who still think that role Kate Winslett played is the only place for women to be. We have to be vigilant that they don’t sneak up behind us during the next few years.
I was very moved by this film. It made me wonder (and hope) that things have changed since the post WWII era. The pill wasn’t invented until 1960, and so everybody came home from the war, got married, had 3 or 4 children, bought the suburban home, etc. etc. Then they wake up at age 30 and realize they are living some elses dream. Every day is exactly like the day before. The future looks like a big black hole. Hence, the 50%+ divorce rate. Very sad.
As a feminist I wanted to be excited by this film —as I was last year by Cristian Mungiu’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”— and I’m struggling to make sense of my disappointment. Part of it was that I just couldn’t care about the two main characters. Would it have made a difference if the story was more about either one of them? Would it have made a difference if the story was less predictable and the dialogue less often on the nose? If a woman wrote the script (though I hate ‘pink’ and ‘blue’ thinking about scripts)? Would it have made a difference if the sex scenes were better? (I think I’ve been permanently spoilt as a sex scene viewer by the sex in Andrea Arnold’s “Red Road”.) There was no moment where the central story affected me viscerally.
But I want to salute the performances and the directing. Leo diCaprio with his workmates (especially with Dylan Baker who was great; and at the end of the last lunch scene when Dylan Baker makes a comment about the secretaries) and as he comes out of a room towards the end. Zoe Kazan (that look in the first scene in the lift!) and Michael Shannon as Kathy Bates’ son were so strong: I wanted to follow their stories instead of the one I was offered. Kathryn Hahn and David Harbour, whose relationship moved me, and who touched my heart as individuals. And Kathy Bates of course, what an amazing actor she is.: the scene where she drops round to see Kate Winslet is beautifully realized (by both of them) complete with that slurping tea sound. The performances kept me in the theatre when the story bored me. And Kate Winslet’s clothes: stunning, like her acting.
Great assessment. I loved 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days too. As well as Red Road. Both were brutal and Surprise bith were from other countries. It’s hard to be attached to a film when the characters are so unlikeable. I think that’s why Winslet’s performances this year have been amazing. Neither April nor her Hannah from The Reader are likeable and she hits them both out of the park
I wish you had given us a spoiler alert on this post.
:(
I was disappointed with Revolutionary Road. Kate and Leo seemed like two characters over acting and over annunciating in a very intense play. Most of the scenes were closely shot in just a few different closed in locations. It felt very suffocating, which was probably Sam Mendes idea, but it didn’t help me to understand the characters any better. I never got the sense of knowing them at all. They were more like caricatures of an unhappy suburban couple from that era, than two real people with real issues. The supporting cast was far more interesting. Also, I really find the whole dysfunctional married couple who live separate lives, have affairs, and wake up one day to realize they are miserable and their marriage is a sham, story line so incredibly tiresome and, dare I say, incredibly OVERDONE. I don’t care what era they put this story into. In my opinion it is the same ole, same ole…who cares?
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