10 Bad-relationship Movies: 4. ‘Revolutionary Road’

4. “Revolutionary Road” (2008) – Director Sam Mendes’ cautionary tale about marriage lives in the 1950s, a time-cradle for suburban expansion, and Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) and April (Kate Winslet) Wheeler put their best feet forward to raise a family.

While Frank gets tangled in the humdrum existence of a thankless corporate job, April stays home to raise children.   They soon discover that their surrounding environment does not naturally fulfill contentment, so April suggests that their family just leave it all behind and runaway to Paris.

Peer pressures attempt to keep them fastened to their Connecticut lives, but the hope is that they find the strength to fly away.

Not unlike thousands of other movies, “Revolutionary Road” takes appropriate shots at the suburbs, but Mendes and screenwriter Justin Haythe let Frank’s and April’s frustrations breathe, which allows the audience to live inside their heads and develop empathy for both.  Kathy Bates and Michael Shannon co-star, and the Academy recognized Shannon with a most-deserved Best Supporting Actor nomination.

Image credits: DreamWorks Pictures; Clip credits: Movieclips

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