The world is a place full of possibilities when bright young things Frank and April meet at a party in fifties Connecticut. And even when they start a family and move to the 'burbs, it's on the understanding that they're not like everyone else, they're different, they're above the stifling domesticity of 2.4 children and a white picket fence. But years later they're shocked to find that they've been sucked in by social conformity and their marriage is a shell: Frank is in a job he hates and sleeping with a bit of skirt from the typing pool and April has nothing to look forward to but long years of tedious home-making. Could a move to Paris put them back on track? It seems like just the tonic... until Frank is offered a promotion and April falls pregnant.
As home ties tighten around their life, April becomes increasingly terrified that her last chance of an adventure has just evaporated. And, to make matters worse, Frank doesn't seem that bothered.
Titanic stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio reunite in a riveting tale of domestic strife played out within the suffocating social confines of Eisenhower's America.
Winslet, who won a Golden Globe for her performance, is outstanding as the seemingly perfect housewife who secretly yearns for more, while DiCaprio sinks his teeth into playing the self-aware stereotype who buys into April's dream for a while, before ultimately turning his back on her. Richard Yates' 1962 novel made troubling reading at the time; almost 50 years later the couple's tale is no less tragic and, in the hands of deft director Sam Mendes (American Beauty), loses none of its power on the big screen. An accomplished, engaging drama with first-class credentials.
Revolutionary Road is a Film programme that first aired in 2008 and has been classified a 15 certificate.
