Revolutionary Road

Cecil says: We saw this at one of our local cinemas in Beckenham. Before the film started, I remarked to Bea how the average age of the audience was quite a bit older than when we went to Ritzy in Brixton last week - probably in part because Brixton is a more youthful, trendy place, but also possibly, as Bea said to me: because this is a film about a marriage and most of the kids at the Brixton cinema would not relate to that...It was telling, therefore, that the two young teenage girls next to us in the Beckenham cinema fidgeted and talked through most of the film and said audibly at the end: 'Well, that was the most depressing film I have ever seen'. So, if you're 23 or younger, maybe Revolutionary Road is not for you...

If you're into 50s design, it's a fantastic film: wonderful images of massed men in trilbies heading off to work on the commuter trains; great furniture in the rooms; fantastic cars (where did they find all those 1950s beauties? Havana??); and great dances...

But the film is not really about the 50s, or anything else social or historical. It is a film about a relationship, and actually the issues and conflicts, dilemmas and solutions could all happen in any relationship today. It's about desires, goals in life and realising that the person you are with may not be the one you should share these with. When is a dream best left as just that: a dream? Whose dream was it, anyway? How do you juggle great career opportunities with fulfilling dreams that take you elsewhere? Is it best to talk about things or leave things unsaid so that those cans of worms are not opened?

These are the questions - and Kate Winslett and Leonardo di Caprio do a great job of living through them. Top marks to them both.

By the way, spot the similarity between the sex scene in the car and the Titanic sex scene (same director, same leading players) - is that a hand I see sliding down the window of the car???

***.5

Bea says: A cheery film - not. But for all its downbeat take on life and marriage, it is truly absorbing. A very intelligent piece of writing, many aspects of it rang true for Cecil and me, both in our current relationship, and past ones. Like walking together after a row, but feeling miles apart, for example. Like saying "I don't love you any more". (Had to reassure Cecil that was about past relationships!)

And to me it had some real depth; dredging up my classics and English "A" levels, I thought the character of John not unlike the Greek chorus, or the Fool in Shakespeare - the "fool" who tells the most insightful truths, and the messages about communication, as the couples who stay together are the ones who don't talk and don't listen.

I was however slightly less enamoured with Winslett and DiCaprio's performances, and Sam Mendes' direction. Whilst very good, I've seen this theme before, and better dealt with, by Ang Lee, Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kostner, in The Ice Storm. If you like this, you'll love that.
*** .5