Meditations On What Might Happen If Their Hearts Did Go On

Wow.

So this is what real life would have done to Jack and Rose, eh. Otherwise known as "Fuck me, where's a butter knife to go after my wrist with."

Revolutionary Road sure ain't perky. The book wasn't so I certainly was not expecting the movie to be either. I do think that the past cinematic history of Kate and Leo add to it, seeing that they play opposite sides of the same coin. Love, that is.

It's a frighteningly normal set up. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. And assuming the ship doesn't sink they go on to marry and live the American dream. Two kids, house in the 'burbs, meaningless jobs, and the creeping sense of horror at the inertia of their lives.

Imagine what would happen if they then decided to say fuck it. Fuck the American Dream. Societal norms be damned they are going to do something original and really live their lives. So begins the Wheeler's plans to move to Paris.

Now imagine that "real" life intrudes. The rules intrude. The friends, the family, the expectations. The laws of the times as well. And fear of the unknown intrudes. For it is also a study in what happens when one of them has the guts to want to try and the other develops cold feet. To quote the movie, "No one forgets the truth, they just get better at lying."

It's very like Gatsby in that they dared to believe "in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us." And like Gatsby, they pay. Yet another cautionary tale about people who dare to dream of following a different drummer.

Wonderful performances as one would expect from Kate and Leo. They still have that spark that elevated Titanic above the crap dialogue. But the real star of the movie is Michael Shannon as the son of a family friend who was a mathematician and is now and Electric Shock Therapy survivor. The end result is he is left incapable of not speaking the blunt honest truth. Shannon plays the role perfectly and funnily enough he proves to be the sanest person in the whole damn show. Then again anyone who knows me would not be surprised to hear me say that. He is what you will remember about this movie 6 months after watching it.

Good movie. Strong on character development with excellent performances all the way around. Bout damn time they gave Katie an Oscar, and for all his douchebaggery ways, DiCaprio is loooong overdue for his.

And wow...50's sex looks hideously vanilla!