Revolutionary Road

Once in a while, there comes along a movie that probably jolts you out of your existence. That hits you hard. That makes you think. Makes you feel. Makes you forget where you are and sucks you into its world. Thats exactly what 'Revolutionary Road' did to me.


Its not an easy movie to watch. And you have to really like dramatic movies to like this movie. But then whats fascinating is that all its dramatic moments are so rooted in real life, that you dont for a moment think the on goings are dramatic. You just watch event after event unfold in April and Frank Wheeler's lives like you were sitting in their living room watching them.

He is a chauvanist. Trying to be the man he isnt. Whose concept of being a 'man' is conventional in nature. Who is bound by his own insecurities. One who loves her. But lacks the guts to say so.

She is the 'seemingly' picture perfect wife. Composed. Calm. But with a storm brewing beneath. A failed actress. One who fell for the concept of 'a happy countryside life with two kids'. Disillusioned. Searching for answers. Desperate to give her marriage a shot of heroine.

Together they struggle to find who they really are, who they were, what they have become and where do they go from where they are. The answers are not easy to come and change with every changing circumstance. From gloom, depression to serendipity to joy to gloom again, their relationship is as topsy turvy as one usually sees marriages as.

Whats best about this movie is the dialogues. The protogonists just rip through each other with their words leaving their real selves, their souls stark naked. Even as they speak they may be feeling within that they need to stop, that this hurts - both themselves as well as the other - and yet they go on. At one point in time, April says -

"And you know what's so good about the truth? Everyone knows what it is however long they've lived without it. No one forgets the truth, Frank, they just get better at lying."

Marvellous. Simply marvellous.

Another one from April Wheeler.
"This is what's unrealistic. It's unrealistic for a man with a fine mind to go on working year after year at a job he can't stand. Coming home to a place he can't stand, to a wife who's equally unable to stand the same things. And you know what the worst part of it is? Our whole existence here is based on this great premise that we're special. They we're superior to the whole thing. But we're not. We're just like everyone else! We bought into the same, ridiculous delusion."

Thats the best thing about Revolutionary Road. On the surface, its the story of a couple whose marriage is on the rocks and on the verge of crumbling. But beneath it all, it is just as much about the individual. The simmering aspirations that each one of us have. The way each of us crave to be with the people we love and yet find it difficult to let go of the person we are within, of our own ideas, our own definition of living. Of what we thought life would be at a point in time and what it turned out or is turning out into. April in fact is unable to come to terms with the fact that this kind of hope that life is going to be wonderful was in fact an illusion she had been imagining all along. How many of us have not felt that kind of thing at some point in time or the other? This is what April says - again it just hits you hard - like a slap in the face.

"For years I thought we've shared this secret that we would be wonderful in the world. I don't know exactly how, but just the possibility kept me hoping. How pathetic is that? So stupid. To put all your hopes in a promise that was never made."

Most of us if we see the movie, would identify atleast at some level with Frank's character. I am talking about the bit of going to a job that we really cant stand most of the time. Frank hates his job. And there is another wonderfully ringing true experience in the movie. After having that talk with April when they decide to move on, Frank goes back to job the next day and finishes his task on hand. As it turns out later, he exceeds so well at this last task and does such a good job on it, that he lands himself a much better profile and pay package. The very though of 'freedom around the corner', the very thought of knowing that he was going to quit the very place he so hated, made him perform superlatively. Cos now he had nothing to fear. The thing is that most of have the potential to excel. But the minute we are dragged into or do something we really dont like, we dont excel at it. Or atleast most of them dont. The day you actually feel free, or truly happy from withing, you actually realise a lot of latent potential. I have seen this ring true in so many cases of people I have known.

Watch this movie as a slice of life. You may or may not agree with the characters. The plot. The story line. Some dialogues. The way it ends. But you would be sure left thinking about some aspect of the movie or other. That I guarantee you.