Paramount (USA)
2.35:1 1080p
118 minutes
Audio: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English, DD 5.1 French, DD 5.1 Spanish
Subtitles: Optional English, English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese
Extras: audio commentary; deleted scenes with optional audio commentary; Lives of Quiet Desperation: The Making of Revolutionary Road; Richard Yates: The Wages of Truth; theatrical trailer
Released: 2 June 2009
Do you like listening to two people having the same argument over and over again? If yes, you’ll love Revolutionary Road, yet another ear-piercing examination of American suburbia from Sam Mendes. Obviously, Mendes was not content with only directing American Beauty, inspiring The Chumscrubber, and producing Things We Lost in the Fire--by the way, all from DreamWorks, which was founded by that other guy obsessed with suburbia, Steven Spielberg.
For two hours, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet bicker about the usual familial concerns, which is fine except that the movie has nothing transcendental or profound to declare. DiCaprio basically re-plays his character from The Departed; it’s easy to look earnest and serious with one’s brows furrowed in constipated studiousness. Winslet is gratingly whiney without generating any sympathies for her character. The movie includes a master-of-the-obvious idiot-savant weirdo, which has now become a Sam-Mendes trademark (in the tradition of Wes Bentley in American Beauty and Jude Law in Road to Perdition). At the end of the movie, a man with hearing problems shuts off his hearing aid so that he can’t hear his wife yammer and yammer and yammer. I felt a profound sense of relief because the sound mix mimics the diegesis, and my suffering ended.
Sam, your two best movies are Road to Perdition and Jarhead, which took you out of the house and into cauldrons of male testosterone. I suggest you re-visit those grounds soon instead of depicting American suburbia ad nauseum.
Video:
You get a lovely 2.35:1 1080p image that has beautiful skin tones. The video is a gorgeous showcase of the handsome production values, which is possibly a tad surreal considering that real life (even in bygone eras with relatively formal sartorial modes) is rarely so “put-together”. Colors are vibrant without appearing to be too “hot”.
Audio:
The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English is limited by the movie’s subject matter, which mostly requires a demanding front center channel filled with yelling. There are some directionality effects across the front. It’s tempting to dial down the volume to protect your ears from ringing, though you’d miss out on the fullness of the music score (much better than the movie deserves), which is well-served by lossless-audio technology.
Extras:
The director and screenwriter Justin Haythe provided yak tracks for the movie and various deleted scenes.
“Lives of Quiet Desperation: The Making of Revolutionary Road” is a standard-issue superficial overview of the production.
The Blu-Ray edition has two extras not found on the DVD. “Richard Yates: The Wages of Truth” is a featurette about the author of the source novel, and you also get a theatrical trailer.
--Miscellaneous--
For a limited time, you can get a $10 discount if you buy Revolutionary Road and Defiance at the same time. The $10 coupon is attached to Revolutionary Road Blu-rays and DVDs.
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