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Revolutionary Road
Paramount Vantage


6.7

based on 38 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 84 votes
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MPAA RATING: R for language and some sexual content/nudity

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Michael Shannon, Kathryn Hahn, David Harbour, and Kathy Bates

Adapted from the landmark novel by Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road is an incisive portrait of an American marriage seen through the eyes of Frank and April Wheeler. Yates’ story of 1950’s America poses a question that has been reverberating through modern relationships ever since: can two people break away from the ordinary without breaking apart? (Paramount Vantage)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Richard Yates (novel) Justin Haythe
DIRECTED BY:	Sam Mendes
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: June 2, 2009 Theatrical: December 26, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	119 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA \| UK

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

TV Guide Perry Seibert

Indeed, all of the performers in the film truly shine, and all of them can probably thank Sam Mendes for creating an ideal environment.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The best American film of 2008.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

This film is so good it is devastating.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The results are being billed as a reunion of the "Titanic" star team, but anyone expecting a similarly gushy romantic idyll is in for a shock: it is an uncompromisingly dreary view of two self-deluded people incapable and unwilling to understand one another.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

There isn't a banal moment in Winslet's performance--not a gesture, not a word. Is Winslet now the best English-speaking film actress of her generation? I think so.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Revolutionary Road is a fine motion picture, but it's not a good choice to lighten a burden or brighten a night. It rewards in the ways that only tragedies can.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

DiCaprio is in peak form, bringing layers of buried emotion to a defeated man. And the glorious Winslet defines what makes an actress great, blazing commitment to a character and the range to make every nuance felt.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Winslet (Mendes' wife) once again demonstrates why she's one of the best actresses working today.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The best thing about Revolutionary Road, a cool-blooded and disquieting adaptation of Richard Yates' 1961 novel about a powerfully unhappy Connecticut couple, is that it doesn't end with that rote vision of bourgeois anomie. It only begins there.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Encouraged by Mendes' artful direction, his gift for eliciting naturalness, the core of this film finally cries out to us today, makes us see that the notion of characters struggling with life, with the despair of betraying their best selves because of what society will or won't allow, is as gripping and relevant now as it ever was. Or ever will be.

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

As a whole, Sam Mendes' film of Revolutionary Road comes close but falls short of capturing Richard Yates' terrific novel.

Newsweek David Ansen

Instead of losing myself in the story, I often felt on the outside looking in, appreciating the craftsmanship, but one step removed from the agony on display. Revolutionary Road is impressive, but it feels like a classic encased in amber.

Variety Todd McCarthy

A near-perfect case study of the ways in which film is incapable of capturing certain crucial literary qualities, in this case the very things that elevate the book from being a merely insightful study of a deteriorating marriage into a remarkable one.

Film Threat Don R. Lewis

I couldn't escape the fact that Revolutionary Road seems like a really, really good episode of "Mad Men." There's smoking, drinking, cheating and like the excellent TV show, the lure of a bigger better deal always rules the day. But the film differs in many ways once you get beyond surface appearances.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Fully exploits the drama, with scenes, dialogue, and even key visuals pulled from the text.

Empire Angie Errigo

Handsomely done and beautifully acted, just slightly wanting in a screenplay that leaves questions unanswered about what's behind these unhappy people. And it's ultra-depressing...

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

However sterling the craftsmanship, the film adaptation inflates the meaning and buffs the atmospheric surfaces of Yates' story, rather than digging into its guts.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

When the tobacco is extinguished what comes between April and Frank Wheeler is bigger, colder and more formidable than the iceberg that sundered Kate and Leo in "Titanic": shattered hope.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Though Revolutionary Road is a less stringent work than Yates's book, it also feels like a more tolerant and humane one.

NPR Bob Mondello

Director Sam Mendes makes '50s suburbia a persuasively suffocating place — he did the same for '90s suburbia in "American Beauty," remember.

USA Today Claudia Puig

It's not quite up to the caliber of Richard Yates' novel, which is deeply nuanced and rich in subtext. But the performances are superb, and the film is beautifully shot.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Both director and cast keep the familiar journey intense, but after capturing the death of love in those opening moments, the rest of the film too often feels like a study in dissection.

Village Voice Scott Foundas

Revolutionary Road isn't a great movie -- it lacks the full, soul-crushing force of the novel -- but what works in it works so well, and is so tricky to pull off, that you can't help but admire it.

The New Yorker David Denby

There's a sourness, a relentlessness about the movie which borders on misanthropy. In both the social and the personal scenes, the conversational tone veers between idiotic pleasantries and fathomless bile, with nothing in between.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

Shannon is monstrously good – unpredictable where the other actors are clipped and careful – and he steals the whole picture in two short, shattering scenes. When Shannon exits the film, the air gets sucked out again, and you realize the pretty artifice extends to more than just the Wheelers.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet do exactly what’s asked of them as Frank and April Wheeler, who may be ironically named: They spin emotional wheels constantly but get nowhere.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Maybe it's a cheap shot to call Revolutionary Road "American Beauty" without the laughs, but it gets to the heart of the problem.

Premiere Jenni Miller

Revolutionary Road isn't emotionally engaging or moving; it's awfully similar in theme to Winslet's 2006 movie "Little Children."

Slate Dana Stevens

It's a textbook example of a well-crafted movie, beautifully shot, impeccably acted, and structured like an elegant three-act play. So why does the movie feel as pleasantly deadening as the midcentury Connecticut suburb where it takes place?

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Mendes has extraordinary gifts, but he has leveled them at the Wheelers like a firing squad. Strangely, he evinced no particular moralizing agenda when making films about the mob or the military. But put ordinary people in his sights and he's venomous. It's unbecoming -- and it should be worked out in private, not in a movie theater.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

A sad experience, but the sadness has no emotional heft because its people have none. This movie hasn't earned its funk.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

An impeccably shot, studiously staged, passionately acted bore, one of those curious fizzles in which everyone seems to do everything right, but the film simply refuses to take off.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

The result is that Revolutionary Road is a hard movie to love. Plenty of people will appreciate the hopelessness, but they might wish for a little less emptiness.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

This is a movie about two people in pain; the last thing they need is for Mendes to turn his cool camera on them. But that's all Mendes knows how to do. He's a clinical director, and whatever feeling he puts into a movie is measured out in careful quarter-teaspoon increments.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

"Revolutionary Road" is the kind of great novel that Hollywood tends to botch, because much of it takes place inside the heads of its characters, and because the Wheelers aren't especially likeable and because pessimism without obvious redemption is a tough sell.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

In "Virginia Woolf," George and Martha are locked into a symbiotic, disturbingly needy relationship that absolutely feed off their acidic battles. But for Revolutionary Road's Frank and April Wheeler, you wonder: Why don't they just get a divorce?

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The movie is stifling, all right, and depressing in the bargain.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Revolutionary Road isn't just a failed literary adaptation. It's a failure of the worst kind: It doesn't even make you want to read Richard Yates' deservedly legendary book.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.7 (out of 10) based on 84 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Essi S gave it a9:
Sam Mendes is at his best with this kind of subject matter. Revolutionary Road is probably his best work since American Beauty, although I loved JarHead as well. I was deeply moved by this movie and it was extremely pressing for me. I felt almost nauseous at the movie theatre at times. It was very tragic, but sadly so true. Revolutionary road has a great cast and Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet have amazing chemistry on screen as we have seen before in Titanic over ten years ago. I was actually thinking that this movie is almost like sequel to Titanic. What if Jack wouldnt have died? I also want to give extra credit for Michael Shannon, who well deserved his Oscar nomination. In this world where societies norms dictate how people live their lives the only sane person was the the crazy person. So it raises the thought that was he even crazy or was he the only normal one in the whole film? Shannons character sums up the whole theme of the movie and he said all the things that people are afraid to say, or even think.

Jay H. gave it an8:
Powerfully acted, Kate Winslet is excellent, but the entire cast is outstanding. God attention to period detail, very well written and directed. The film never loses focus and is always interesting.

Kee D. gave it a9:
I am in complete agreement with Scott A., in that it makes me FURIOUS when critics say, essentially, "this movie is depressing and therefore not good." Please. Sorry the content bummed you out, but did you happen to notice that this film is completely absorbing, and Kate Winslet's performance is so good that you're stunned over and over again by her talent. I couldn't give this a 10 because Leo's performance is not 100% believable (he really should try to avoid acting opposite Kate Winslet - she dwarfs him, as the Academy has twice noticed).

Sean B gave it a10:
One of the bravest films I've seen.. no easy answers provided for the audience.. anyone who thinks these 2 characters are merely "delusional" are either deliberately and crudely trying to white wash what this is about, or, sadly they just dont get it

Susan P. gave it a9:
This is a very thought provoking movie about the human condition, the difficulties of intimacy, the struggle to find meaning in life.

Enrique T gave it a10:
This film is one of the best of 2008 and one of the bests i've ever seen. Sam Mendes is a great director, that makes you get every detail in the film. Winslet gives an stunning performance as well as her good friend leonardo Dicaprio. They both deserved an oscar nomination for this film, and the film itself deserved it for best picture, just as in the Golden Globes! C'mon it is better than MILK! Anyway, it is a great movie, with intense dialogue and characters. Mise-en-scene is excellent and the atmosphere felt in this movie is unbelievable!

Nate R gave it a9:
I love this movie, in a screwed up kind of way because it so impressively comments on how even the couples that are put on pedestals have their own secrets behind closed doors, very somber and unnerving throughout but really well done.

Revolutionary Road Paramount Vantage

Revolutionary Road
Paramount Vantage