Revolutionary Road

Last night, on entering the cinema I was ready for a cinematic experience. Had been reading earlier about how everything in a cinema is part of the film, from the silhouetted heads in front, to the dim glow of the fire escape, the ushers, the edge of the screen, the noise of the projector or in the screen last night the noise of the ventilation in the dark ceiling above. I dig this theory. And thinking about it only increases the sense of experience.

So we sat, poco and myself, and after the ads and trailers -which I am now seeing as very much a part of the film, the film rolled. It starts with a strange silence. Kind of knocks you a little. However the city is before us and Nina Simone croons us in. Well it could be Nina. The soundtrack continues with subtle perfection. Scored by Thomas Newman, who also worked with Mendes on American Beauty, it echoes the soundtrack to that film as much as the narrative. It manages to explore the same themes and carry the narrative to the same sort of place as American Beauty without feeling repetive. The same could be said about the film itself. The characters themselves feel like they have just been moved to several decades previous of AB. But the way they feel, what they want and how they deal with it, is all approached with the same mentality, just confined within a different slightly different set of rules and responsibilities due to this estrangement in time.

However, Revolutionary Road is still feels very current. For me anyway. It made me think about myself. Just that I should follow my dreams, reject convention as conforming only brings disaster. I think this feeling came from not feeling like the characters were very real. They seemed to be there as symbols, a prophecy. I guess this probably comes from being adapted from a novel, but the way the couple spoke felt slightly theatrical. On another level this adds to the themes of the film, as these people are living theatrically, they are pretending to conform.

My favourite sequences have to be the ones involving John. This guy is just visiting people his parents think appropriate, whilst on four hour release from some pyschiatric ward. He is the only one who admits that the couple are wise to all that's not right in society.

The children barely enter the frame which is a little strange.

I think it is very beautiful in it's cinematography, eloquently crafted narrative and thoughtful performances -fills the soul with the hopeless emptiness it speaks of.