Depression In the 50's, and the Collateral Damage

    The film "Revolutionary Road" dealt with some of the same issues as "Rachel Getting Married," but there were two huge differences. The film' s characters were much more interesting than "Rachel," primarily due to their ability to elicit the audience's sympathy or empathy (depending one's mental state). Comparatively, "Revolutionary Road" was a much better produced film.

    "Revolutionary Road" deals realistically with the issue of mental illness and how it is most often unsuccessfully integrated into society. In the 1950's society was structured to the extent that conformity was paramount. Director Sam Mendes used a fine screenplay by Justin Haythe to develop a great group of symbols of that era's rush to the middle. One of the best of these allegorical symbols was the exiting of the throng of businessmen, irrespective of position, upon the streets from the train station. Each man wore a neat suit of clothes and a fedora perched upon his head. That societal need to work within pattern was the order of that day, but it did not play well with the individual ego's of some people locked within the constraints of those times.

    The Wheelers, Frank and April (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet respectively) of Revolutionary Road appeared to be the exception, but could break free of these societal bounds that ruled this decade. April also had all the signals of suffering from an undiagnosed case of acute manic depression, which compounded their situation in surviving as a family, much less living up to the neighbor's vicarious expectations.

    The signals of her dysfunctional personality began to show up immediately, but appeared to manifest its debilitating symptoms in a more repetitive manner as their story unfolded. Her sad personal disability effected her husband, Frank, profoundly and yet he never stopped loving her and never gave up on her. Leonardo is developing into a very good actor and one can empathy sizes with Frank's pain as her relentlessly tires to please his increasingly demanding wife.

    Kate's portrayal of April is what one, who knows film talent, would expect - she gives her standard effort, and it is superb. When she begins to understand a perceived essential truth residing in the words of the psychologically handicapped son of her visiting Realtor, played by the great character actor Kathy Bates, one can begin to see her own ego unraveling into her psychosis.

    The Realtor's son, John Givings, played by Michael Shannon, stated to the Wheelers, "hopeless emptiness. Now you've said it. Plenty of people are onto the emptiness, but it takes real guts to see the hopelessness."

    April understood John's maxim and when the refugees from the asylum start making sense, one need to gut check their own sanity. April never knew she needed too. She thought her unhappiness was with her husband and his ordinary job that led to her hopeless, emptiness of spirit.

    The film is a dark look into the last fully structured society within the modern America - the fifties. It does not make it wrong - it was what it was. Some families thrived during that structured era. The neighborhood's model family, the Wheelers, did not.

    The acting by everyone was very good. The story was important, and well told in its 119 minutes of runtime.I wish there had been an uplifting message, there wasn't.     It was; however, a very good film and shot well enough in mood and tone to remind me of the fifties. My memories of those simple times are good, I'm just glad they are behind me. Now it I can ever get that sorry excuse of a movie "Rachel Getting Married" out of my mind.

    Rated R. Released on DVD June 2, 2009.