Definitely worth two hours of your night.
After the one-two punch of Romeo & Juliet and Titanic, Leo DiCaprio became a force to be reckoned with.
Flitting back and forth between box office hits and knock-out performances, his run in the ’00s included Gangs Of New York, Catch Me If You Can, The Aviator, The Departed, Blood Diamond and Body Of Lies.
Before he hit another streak in the 2010s thanks to Shutter Island, Inception, Django Unchained, The Wolf Of Wall Street and The Great Gatsby, the film that got lost in between, that everybody forgets about, and that nobody went to see in the cinema, was Revolutionary Road.
Clip via Paramount
Reuniting DiCaprio with Kate Winslet had movie audiences expecting Titanic 2, and having them work with Sam Mendes (who hadn’t gone near Bond yet, but had delivered American Beauty and Road To Perdition), worked everyone up into a frenzy.
What they got instead was an incredibly acted, beautifully directed, slow-motion view of the self-destruction of a loving relationship. No wonder critics and audiences promptly freaked out, because they didn’t know how to react to seeing Jack and Rose visibly resent each other.
The film cost $35 million to produce, and made only $22.9 million at the US box office, making it a total flop. Additionally, it only scored 68% on Rotten Tomatoes, as the divide between love and hate for the movie widened with each and every review.
This reaction was totally understandable, as the story of a young couple living in a Connecticut suburb during the mid-1950s struggle to come to terms with their personal problems while trying to raise their two children isn’t exactly going to have people queuing down the street for tickets.
However, if you do give the movie a chance, you will find a hidden gem that will hit you right in the emotions, with Winslet and DiCaprio on top form (and they are joined by Michael Shannon, Kathy Bates and David Harbour, all firing on all cylinders throughout), and there is a certain vibe within the film itself, one of new beginnings and escaping old routines, that kind of makes it a perfect movie to watch at the start of a new year.
Revolutionary Road is on TG4 tonight at 22.35, but if you’re not feeling this one, here are our other movie recommendations for today.
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