Leooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Revolutionary Road.

O-M-G. How brill was this film? It was genius.

Now I would highly recommend Richard Yate's novel first because the novel is more in-depth, quality and detailed, as is usually the case with an adaptation. People talk of works like Miller's Death of a Salesman etc. being the books that outline the disillusionment of the "American Dream" but I think Yate's does the best job. Not only does he tackle the horrible falsity of the quote-unquote American dream but he takes it one step further to look at how there is the falsity of everlasting love and adventure in relationships. Its haunting and hard to think about at points but its absolute perfection.

Fast forward to the film adaptation. Sam Mendes is a genius at filming a relationship in all of its honesty. The film is parred down from the book. Pieces like Frank's affair are whittled from a awkwardly entertaining look at "the other woman" to a blip just so you know he was unfaithful. That being said the acting is absolutely amazing. Kate Winslet NEVER gives a poor performance and she took a great turn as the depressed, dissatisfied and malicious housewife, April Wheeler. Usually she brings some charm to her roles but it was delicious to see her just balls out be the bad girl, pretending to be good. It was beautiful to watch her just break down and embody that character. And Leonardo Dicaprio. It is not a secret that I adore him but I sincerely believe he is the best actor of his generation as well. RR was his crowning dramatic glory to date. His Frank Wheeler was smooth, charismatic, devilishly handsome but unsure, faltering and worried underneath it all. Chill worthy performance.

The real power of this movie lies in Micheal Shannon's portrayal of John Givings. He is only in about two scenes but he steals the movie. Givings is a brilliant character in itself, showing that perhaps he is the only sane character in the piece (I'll leave you to watch/read to figure out why that is so dramatic) but Shannon just blew my mind. Where Winslet/DiCaprio's portrayals were exact and perfect embodiments of Shannon takes the his character and breaths this new life and perspective into it. I'm literally getting chills just thinking about it.

This is not a happy movie but it is an honest movie. Beautifully set and shot. Chilling acting and fantastic adaptation. A have-to-see.

<3