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Revolutionary Road (2008) Certificate 15

Revolutionary Road
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Rated 3.0 stars
Average rating
(62%)
 
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio | Kate Winslet | Michael Shannon | Kathryn Hahn | Kathy Bates | Ty Simpkins | Zoe Kazan | David Harbour | Ryan Simpkins | John Behlmann | Kristen Connolly
Director: Sam Mendes
Studio: PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Run time: 119 mins
Collections: 100 Most Wanted
Genres: Audio Descriptive | Drama
Languages: English, English Audio Description
Released: June 29, 2009

Frank and April, a married couple in the 1950s, have always seen themselves as special, different, ready and willing to live their lives based on higher ideals. So, as soon as they move into their new house on Revolutionary Road, they proudly declare their independence from the suburban inertia that surrounds them and determine never to be trapped by the social confines of their era. Yet for all their charm, beauty and irreverence, the Wheelers find themselves becoming exactly what they didn't expect: a good man with a routine job whose nerve has gone missing; a less-than-happy homemaker starving for fulfillment and passion; an American family with lost dreams, like any other. Driven to change their fates, April hatches an audacious plan to start all over again, to leave the comforts of Connecticut behind for the great unknown of Paris. But when the plan is put in motion, each spouse is pushed to extremes--one to escape whatever the cost, the other to save all that they have, no matter the compromises.

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Rating of 3 stars out of 5
Time Out

Kate! Leo! Sam Mendes! And a Great American Novel! The stars are aligned! All known film industry computations dictate...

Highest rated reviews

133 out of 135 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 2.0 stars
Solid enough but lacking any real bite or originality

Daniel Pollard from Manchester, England, 17th February, 2009

The latest film from Sam Mendes the acclaimed theatre director turned Hollywood darling by his first feature, American Beauty. He quickly followed this up with the Road to Perdition, Jarhead and now Revolution Road, adapted from the cult Richard Yates novel. The film returns to the themes first covered by Mendes in American Beauty of mundane, bored and unfulfilled relationships behind the white middle class picket fences of suburban American. Unfortunately, this all sounds very familiar and when the film is running it does feel very outdated and dull. After watching David Lynch’s dark masterpiece Blue Velvet and even Mendes own American Beauty it’s easy to feel this is a soft touch lacking any real bite, satirical edge or originality. On the plus side, the performances are solid, if a little too worthy, the cinematography is neat and unfussy and the supporting roles are good, even if they are very clichéd.

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49 out of 54 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 1.0 stars
Made for awards not for entertainment

A Customer from Ashton-Under-Lyne, 2nd February, 2009

Fooled by the critics again, we expected this to be a tour de force film that was different than any other, instead we were rewarded by two hours of a chain smoking 50's couple falling out, making up, falling out, shouting at each other and general un-entertaining misery that might be high brow enough in its acting performances to have the various awards bodies clamouring to dish out the gongs, for us mere mortals who want a bit of escapist entertainment if you slept for an hour of this you will have missed 2 minutes, a pretty miserable film that we could not recommended.

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47 out of 55 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 1.0 stars
Depressing and boring

A Customer from Petworth, 2nd February, 2009

Very disappointing. I really couldn't get into this film, it had nothing remarkable about it at all. The acting was good, but the storyline was weak with no decent scenery. I would have very happily walked out of the cinema. It wasn't even realistic, the kids only appeared a couple or three times. I guess it was trying to put a point across, but by the end of the film I really couldn't care what happened to either of the lead characters.

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21 out of 24 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 0.0 stars
This film is Amaz......

richard from , 5th July, 2009

..................ingly CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dull in the extreme

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Most recent reviews

Rated 0.5 stars
Revolutionary Road

Twissyc from , 20th March, 2010

Avoid this film if you do not want to be depressed. It is a miserable little film, never again. I cannot think of any highlights save for the end. I had to watch this film in three segments to get through it, had it been in the cinema, I would have left within the first 15 minutes. Avoid, avoid, avoid!!!!!

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Rated 2.0 stars
Road to the wooden hill

HDX from , 19th March, 2010

A film of such mediocrity that they had to name it after the road in which the two central character settle down. The title has nothing to do with revolution or roads. Just as well ther didn't buy a house in Railway Cuttings. If you like soap operas you may like this. There are some reasonable scenes at the beginning and a few scattered about later on. But this is tedious stuff.

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Rated 3.0 stars
Relentlessly depressing

robynblue71 from , 19th March, 2010

Powerful performance from Kate Winslet but be prepared for a seriously bleak and bitter portrayal of 50s America, the oppressiveness of suburbia and the cruelty people are capable of when confronted with their own failings.

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Rated 4.0 stars
Mesmerising stuff

romanticnovelist from , 18th March, 2010

Brilliant acting turns what is a fairly ordinary story into a movie that holds your attention all the way through. I wasn't a great DiCaprio fan, but after watching this, I can see what all the fuss is about. Leonardo and Kate have great chemistry, the emotion feels very real and their situation truly tragic. Together with spot-on period detail, it adds up to a memorable film.

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