Remember how I sorta mini-ranted about how I’m entirely over the whole “suburbs suck” genre during my review of Little Children? No? Well, you suck. Anyway, I’m entirely over the genre. Seriously, we fucking get it, beneath the bright facade of American suburban life lies a dark and depressing underbelly. It’s just dreary bullshit at this point.
Revolutionary Road is directed by the guy who popularized the whole genre way back when with American Beauty, Sam Mendes. I’m generally a fan of Mendes. He’s fantastic at crafting beautiful shots although sometimes his stories seem to lack, something, it’s hard to quantify (see: Jarhead). Revolutionary Road, while well-made/shot/acted, has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the penis. For realsies, it takes all the suburban angst bullshit from American Beauty (which, by the way, I didn’t really like all that much) and ratchets it up to 11. I’m baffled by the fact that this movie is getting Oscar buzz (I believe Winslett won a Golden Glove for her performance, as if the Golden Globes meant shit), there isn’t a glimmer of fun in this movie. I feel that a lot of the time critics confuse “sad as all hell” with “good” (see: 21 Grams, Babel). So yeah, I didn’t really like this movie at all. It’s beautifully shot, well acted, thoroughly well made, and devoid of anything that would incite me to recommend it to anyone. If you want to watch a depressing movie, go watch Requiem for a Dream. If you want to watch something about how the suburbs suck watch American Beauty, or, better yet, Mad Men (it even takes place in roughly the same time period as Revolutionary Road). Avoid.
