I saw an advance screening of Revolutionary Road in Beverly Hills, CA this evening (December 14th). A Q&A session followed the screening with Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates, Michael Shannon, Kathryn Hahn, and screenwriter Justin Haythe. Photos from the Q&A are attached to this report.
Revolutionary Road is a story that you won’t be able to shake easily. The film will stick in your head and leave you to contemplate what has just happened on the screen before you. Richard Yates gives us the story of Frank and April Wheeler, the seemingly perfect suburbia couple. We soon find out their marriage is teetering on the edge of a collapse as they are overwhelmed by the fact that they have each made the wrong choices in their lives.
Once again Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio come together with great chemistry, pulling the best out of each other. This is a heavy film with emotionally complex characters, I’m not sure I could think of any two actors that could pull off the roles of Frank and April Wheeler like Leonardo and Kate did.
“Truth is usually in singular – Lies always come in plural.” I’m not sure who said that, but it is a notion that sums up this film.
Michael Shannon shinned in his role as the clinically insane son of Kathy Bates character; John Givings. Bates and Shannon both deliver humorous scenes to this heavy storyline, although there are times when you see the sadness and desperation in their characters as well. Michael Shannon’s character, John Givings, is the truth in this film. Although clinically insane, he can see through everyone’s lies and does the unthinkable; he forces everyone face their own truth.
I guarantee you will not be singing “My Heart Will Go On” after seeing this film. But you won’t be disappointed with this little film gem.
GALLERY LINKS:
• Movie Premieres and Screenings: Revolutionary Road Advance Screening
Your imaginations are needed to help fill some gaps in a short film around which buzz has incrementally built over the last few months, and which actress Emma Stone briefly teased today in an interview with Movieline. That would be five-minute segment Kate Winslet and Hugh Jackman contributed to the anthology Untitled Comedy — which, depending on whom you ask, is a working title or the actual name of an all-star omnibus directed by the likes of Peter Farrelly, Brett Ratner, Elizabeth Banks, and others. Stone is in another short altogether, but to hear her tell it (and not nearly enough), keep your eyes on The Catch.
