Street Style

Reunited after 11 years, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio remind us why they made history together in Titanic…

Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes’s latest film Revolutionary Road confronts and challenges our preconditioned sensibilities and notions of relationships, social status and personal dreams. It strips your ideals and beliefs to their core and makes you question your life’s direction and the motivation behind your choices.

Set in Connecticut in the 1950s, Winslet and DiCaprio star as April and Frank Wheeler, children of a generation determined to do something ‘special’ with their lives. Seven years after they meet, however, they are married and living in the suburbs with two kids, suffocating in a life they once scoffed at.

Frank works at the same company his father did which makes him hate the job even more. April, still lamenting the demise of her acting career, is both mentally and emotionally sinking in her cookie-cutter role as wife, mother and homemaker.

In a last ditch attempt to shake their lives up, she devises a plan for the family to move to Paris. While he takes some cajoling at first, Frank quickly comes around to the idea and robustly jumps on the bandwagon. It’s full steam ahead for a short while until fear, doubt and mistrust start to wobble the wheels of their Paris cart. With their relationship already on tenterhooks, the steady disintegration of their dreams forces both Frank and April to reconsider their future. 

Based on Richard Yates’s 1961 novel of the same name, Mendes (who won an Oscar for Best Director - American Beauty in 1999) is a master at honing in on the complex trivialities that compress suburban life. Mendes deftly capitalizes on the acting prowess (and the previous celluloid union) of his stars Winslet and DiCaprio. Supported by notables such as Kathy Bates and Michael Shannon (who is magnificent as her psychiatrically-disturbed son, John) this solid cast carries the challenge of elucidating Yates’s vision in sublime style.

Cinematographer Roger Deakins lovingly focuses on the actors’ faces to catch every nuance and reactionary tick. At the top of his game, Deakins has received seven Oscar nominations as Director of Photography including film greats such as The Shawshank Redemption, Fargo, O Brother Where Art Thou and No Country For Old Men.

Partnered with Sam Mendes, Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kathy Bates, this movie is a powerhouse of elite talent.

Prepare for Revolutionary Road to pave the way at the Oscar nominations on the same day as its Australian release.

Revolutionary Road is released on January 22 2009.