Revolutionary Road

It's good to watch a colour film again. I sometimes wonder why such a dreadful feeling when I watch black and white films, and I've seemed to figure out that it's because the setting of the period, the way the people talk, can't connect to me too much.

And watching a colour film like "Revolutionary Road" is more than just good. Both Kate Winslet and Leonardo di Carpio are at their best! Recently, I've just heard about a comment that says Leonardo is only good in Titanic, but this isn't the case. To see how they work and affect each other in this piece of film is simply amazing and of course for me, a wonderful experience to see how these actors act. They're focused, attentive to the partner, and it makes me believe that each time they do a take, it is not the same, and it must be the case. At times, the camera work just flow uninterruptedly when they're having a fight, and it works brilliantly without any cut (whether it is done purposefully or not during the shoot) because it delivers a more realistic and believable scene to the audience. What's more, both performances are too good to be watched. The scenes of them shouting at each other are so furious and frequent that any 2nd class actors would make it over-the-top and irritating to watch.

This film would probably look like an ordinary dull story on the screenwriter's papers, yet it makes you think almost every second on the screen, now this is what ya call film-making. Each characters have their own needs but they have to learn how to also accommodate the other person's needs since they are couple, and this is very true in all love relationships. As the saying goes, real people do not say explicitly what they think, because words uttered are rationalized. It is why we have to keep thinking and exploring what the characters really need or lack of. April loves her husband, she wants to make him happy, she takes care of him, but what is it that she's unhappy about? She wants a change - Paris, a fantasy that believed to be a paradise, but throughout the story, her conscious intent was to make her husband happy. Subconsciously, she's probably not. On the other hand, Frank seemed to buy the idea of relocating for a new life, but he is certainly unease with the change itself. The higher pay and promotion had challenged his decision, and as most of us will do, no matter how bored the job is, to accept this irresistible offer. Most of the people do not know what they want, but money is something that they absolutely know that they wouldn't not want. Despite Frank shows his sincere love and care to keep the baby, and I believe he didn't wittingly make his wife pregnant to cover his weakness of not going for a change, in a way he must have felt that the fact of the pregnancy is a more logical and solid reason to support his needs. The ironic thing about couple living together is that they want to please each other, and they make themselves in believing that making the partner happy means making they themselves happy. A long suppression of own need, probably unconsciously, makes something go wrong underneath each word and each action. Kate and Leonardo have brought out the essence of acting, where we observed that something is happening "in between" their words, and not "on" their words itself.

The movie is a tragedy. It seems there is no way out for both of them, which is pessimistic to think of. And the movie ends with the scene of the old couple talking in the living room, which gives an interesting hint.