Wednesday, January 14, 2009

revolutionary road



I don't remember why we thought it was a good idea to go see Revolutionary Road in the theaters.  It might have been because Jeff was all about Kate and Leo reuniting on the screen.  Now that I'm legitimately poor I think I will reserve movie tickets for action movies.  Dramas just don't need 30 feet of screen space (usually).  

The last ten minutes of the movie were the most interesting for me, as I felt like the director put the finishing touches on defining the relationships of the three main couples.  
The main relationship - Kate and Leo - had a couple major fights throughout the film in which Kate would turn away and say that she didn't want to talk about it any more and Leo would persist.  Eventually (spoiler alert) Kate goes kind of crazy.  The second couple (the neighbors), at the end the husband says, 'I just don't want to talk about them any more' and the wife listens and shuts up.  With the third couple (and this is the ending scene) the wife is going on and on about nonsense and the husband slowly turns down his hearing aid, blocking her out.  

What is this saying about relationships and marriage and talking?  Can we successfully and sustainably (correct use of a buzzword?) connect with each other?  Is the "solution" in this film to give each other the space to disappoint us and "not want to talk about it"?

p.s. - a lot of the footage from the trailer wasn't in the movie.  strange.  

2 comments:

  1. I wanted to go see it because I like Leo and Kate, I like dramas that seem to be riddled with deep angst, and I thought it was going to be redemptive. Still lots to learn from this movie, I think I'll have to see it a second time (on DVD) in order to understand it all.

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  2. It's had such great reviews, I've wanted to see it too. I adore Kate, I think she's amazing in every movie she does. I'll probably wait, though, for when it comes out on DVD. There are some others in the theater I'd rather see at this point.

    I read somewhere that footage in the trailer that isn't in the movie is because the scenes that often tell us basic plot stuff (like stuff needed for a trailer) get cut for time purposes, in order to move the plot along faster. But because it's so "basic" it gets used for the trailer.

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