As the major critics wait to reveal details of their feelings about Revolutionary Road, we have to rely on opinions passed along from trusted friends. Not all critics can work for big name publications, pull down comfy salaries, and publish their reviews like rulings handed down from the Supreme Court — but there are other intelligent, reputable and reliable voices out there nonetheless. It’ll be fascinating to see how the mainstream critics converge or veer off from the early praise we’re hearing, but I see no reason to wait for Kenneth Turan or Mick LaSalle to harrumph in with their proclamations when I don’t always agree with them anyway.
Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York
We’ve seen Winslet pinned behind these window panes before, trembling. Here, though, her material is meatier, more about aging and the death of dreams, and she is spellbinding, particularly as she closes down. DiCaprio launches himself into terrific Nicholsonian rages with Winslet; they both seem secure as performers and it’s tempting to think of this as the Titanic generation’s graduation. The movie is occasionally prestigey (it’s time to put composer Thomas Newton out to pasture), but no film featuring Bug’s ferocious Michael Shannon, as a neighbor’s mentally disturbed son who has weird insights, could be confused for mere Oscar fare.
Dan Callahan, The House Next Door
The casting is ideal all down the line: how can I begin to describe the pleasure I took in Kathy Bates’ performance as Mrs. Givings? Some of the best sections of Yates’ book concern Mrs. Givings’ sadly paltry inner life, and there’s no way for the film to give you that sense of her, not even in dialogue, yet all of it is there in Kathy Bates’ eyes, all of this woman’s confusion and hurt feelings and fear, which she tries to conceal with a steady stream of cheerful, slightly pretentious small talk.
Katey Rich, Cinemablend
Adapted as it is from a novel that spends huge sections inside its characters’ heads, it’s remarkable how well Revolutionary Road is able to capture the same truths about its characters. Small gestures take on huge significance, entire series of emotions wash across a face within seconds– all of the actors, from Winslet and DiCaprio down to Kazan, work together beautifully to externalize a story that’s all about what’s never said.
32 Responses for "First wave of raves for Revolutionary Road"
I believe Mike LaSalle has already declared his love for Revolutionary Road a few weeks ago when he was discussing film awards–wasn’t that item posted here somewhere?
What else can I say, except Yay =D!
I’ll look for it, daveylow. LaSalle was writing about awards in general?
[EDIT: We can do a really thorough search of the entire site archives by keyword, daveylow. Searching for "LaSalle" only turned up 5 references in the past few months, and none to do with Revolutionary Road. Maybe another critic you're thinking of?
I like Mick LaSalle. I only mention him as representative of critics who sometimes tend to write with a very adamant tone of authority. They don't all. I like critics best who don't try to be the boss of me. ]
I do hope that there is going to be a turn around with RR – I haven’t seen it, but I’ve recently read the book and someone was nice enough to pass the script along to me….wink
If it’s not awarded best picture I sincerely hope that it gets a trio or a quartet of acting noms….
rex reed also liked it a lot…. bad news
I say it one more time:
Revolutionary Road is this year´s Atonement!
Or this year’s Things We Lost in the Fire…
It has a metacritic score of 77. “Santa” Ebert will surely give it four stars.
And I say it.
It isn’t. The blacklash against Sam mendes (people already hate American Beauty for some reason, even though they loved it years ago) and his style as well as the overpraised factor will hurt it a lot. Atonement was hated by people who have not seen it! It surprised those who saw it…. Here that’s not the case with RR. And Atonement got more awards’ attention than RR. It made the BFCA list. RR didn’t. It got more Golden Globe nominations. It got huge love from BAFTA.
Kirk Honeycutt’s lone negative review:
It took me about 10 seconds to Google “divorce 1950s” and the top search result tells me:
Besides, Frank and April love each other. They want to find a way to work through their problems. I guess Kirk Honeycutt never had a wife, or a girlfriend, or a kid, or anybody else who cared enough about his sorry ass to argue with him.
Ryan, to be devil’s advocate, April’s solution (no spoiler here) was probably equally a rarity in the 1950s.
And the movie does not lead me to believe that these two people love each other. George and Martha do.
Hey Eric–what do you mean that REVOLUTIONARY ROAD “is this year’s ATONEMENT?” You’re playing with fire there buddy! LOL!
We are presently experiencing a major blizzard here in the Manhattan/northern New Jersey area right now, but I have tentative plans to see RR tonite, and THE WRESTLER tomorrow night. I will definitely come back to this thread, but I did expect to read some of these reactions to be honest.
George and Martha were middle-aged and bloated, but two Titanic stars look better than ever and that makes us mere mortals jealous.
I have been looking forward to it for months and I hope I am not let down. Maybe, Mad Men sucked all of Rev Road buzz.
George and Martha were middle-aged and bloated, but two Titanic stars look better than ever and that makes us mere mortals jealous.
dela, don’t toss the b-word around until you’ve seen the movie.
Paul, I can’t wait to see the movie now.
Joshua Rothkopf….I believe you were referring to Thomas Newman (the composer) in your review. He should have won an Oscar years ago for The Shawshank Redemption. So I think we will keep him in the “barn” for a few more years.
dela: Scene III, I believe. A man, a woman, a car.
Frank and April start out loving each other, but once they progressively start to believe one’s the reason for the other’s misery, they begin to loathe each other’s guts. Passionately.
But why don’t they “just” get a divorce? Adams is, for once
, right. It’s the 1950’s, for cryin’ outloud!!! Nobody just gets a divorce.
It doesn’t really matter what decade it is. Honeycutt’s inane question, why don’t they just [fill in the blank], if applied to all movies would defeat their entire purposes. One can ask this nonsensical question of every released and soon to be released movie. His reviews aren’t particularly insightful: Why doesn’t The Reporter get a new reviewer?
Ryan,
I must be confusing Mike LaSalle with another S.F. critic–I just remember reading something a few weeks ago that said RR was the real deal. Let me see if I can find it.
I don’t know when this will open here, but I am dying to see it. I loved the book, and I’m a fan of DiCaprio and Winslet.
Ryan,
Here’s the article by Mike La Salle from Dec. 12 SFGate that I first read here. He was responding to the Golden Globe nominations and then said this about RR:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/12/DD2I14MBUE.DTL&hw=Revolutionary+Road&sn=006&sc=424
Best picture (drama) has “Button,” “Frost/Nixon,” “The Reader,” “Revolutionary Road” and “Slumdog Millionaire.” “The Reader” is a respectable failure. I didn’t particularly like “Slumdog,” though I’m pretty much alone there. But “Frost/Nixon” is first rate, and Sam Mendes’ “Revolutionary Road,” about a tortured suburban marriage in the 1950s, is a hands-down, bet-the-farm, watch-it-three-times-in-a-row masterpiece. You’ve heard it here first.
Revolutionary Road is this year’s Atonement only if it wins the Golden Globe. Otherwise it’s getting ignored everywhere.
Wow!!! That’s fantastic, Davey. Thank you.
And you know what, Daniel? Would you believe me if I told you that I had that very same thought a few minutes after I posted my response? Those what-if’s are just stupid.
“What if they just let them get off that island in “Lost”?” Well, then there wouldn’t be much of a show, would there? Idiots…
Ryan
Glance over at RT site , and you’ll find 19 of 21 positive reviews.
Ryan
Also would suggest checking out Liz Smith’s comments on the film ,and the reactions of women who saw it with her.
http://www.wowowow.com/post/liz-smith-kate-winslet-and-leo-dicaprio-revolutionary-road-are-all-grown-157972?promo=news
To Ryan Adams
Thanks for posting about the divorce rate in the 1950’s.
You can’t apply today’s social norms to those of the 1950’s. It doesn’t work. In fact, divorce was still rare into the 1960’s. My grandparents split up in the 1950’s — lived apart the rest of their lives — but never divorced.
And Paul Outlaw, April’s “solution” was not as rare as one might think it was back then — for many reasons. Both my mother and my aunt have told me it wasn’t common, but hardly unheard of.
Kate Winslet is a magnificent actress of substance.
She may, in fact, be one of the best actresses of her generation working in film today. Kate is miraculous, simply astounding. She can be provocative and by God, fearless. And to think that she has gone this long without an OSCAR is just a travesty.
if RR is this year’s Things We Lost in the Fire…
Changeling is this year’s Rendition…lol
I think it’s a travesty that Winslet AND DiCaprio have gone this long without Oscars, considering some of the people who have won them.
DiCaprio, as well, is a very serious actor capable of giving very sensitive performances. Heck, he should’ve won Best supporting for What’s Eaiting Gilbert Grape….That was a virtuoso performance, in my opinion.
I loved it – though it was a movie about being human. and so few movies that has great monologs like this one. going to study more about this at http://www.revolutionaryroad.com
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