torment in the burbs

there was the desire to read the novel first to truly come into grips with the emotions of the characters. but i reckon, the film itself is overflowing with heartfelt despair and despondency that i no longer want to inflict torture upon myself. revolutionary road is a study of entrapment and sullen discontentment. as we go through our journeys in our lifetimes, a series of options are beamed over giant television screens in our minds and we have to tick the appropriate boxes to charter the journey of our lives. suburbia with its cardboard houses and manicured lawns resembles a final resting place. april wheeler ticked her chosen boxes. marrying a guy because he had a nice smile at a party was hardly a fitting choice. the 50's may have been an era of domesticity but there were women who worked and achieved fulfillment, bugger-all with the conservative naysayers who threw invectives behind their backs. bored housewives inveigled by the silence of an empty habitat, bode well as gossipmongers.

for the disgruntled, unfulfilled wife, there's the flow in revolutionary road, the street where frank and april wheeler lived with their two children. frank may have had the dead end job saddled with the spirit of the times but his wife was astonishingly uncompromising, hence all the tearful histrionics. the haunting music, the beautiful imagery permeate the film with melancholic allure. the acting is superb, from the leads, winslet and dicaprio to the support lead by michael shannon who eschews the best lines in the endeavor. the movie is so brilliantly bleak and heartbreaking that it's video disk is a perfect gift for one's frenemy.