Revolutionary Road (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:193
Fresh:132
Rotten:61
Average Rating:6.6/10
Consensus: Brilliantly acted and emotionally powerful, Revolutionary Road is a handsome adaptation of Richard Yates' celebrated novel.
Theatrical Release:30-01-2009
Synopsis: Those who were waiting for the romantic reunion of TITANIC's Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet may be surprised by what they find in REVOLUTIONARY ROAD. The movie begins with a sweet scene where... [More]
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Michael Shannon, Kathryn Hahn
Director: Sam Mendes
Reviews for Revolutionary Road
| Tomatometer | Critic | Review | Category |
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 2/5 |
The film is blatantly aimed at the Oscar committee - anyone else may well find it slightly dull. Full Review |
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2/5 |
If ever there were a film that aimed for the zeitgeist and missed badly, it’s this one. Full Review |
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Sam Mendes's film, based on a faithful screenplay by Justin Haythe, is beautifully crafted. Full Review |
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4/5 |
Sam Mendes has created an intelligent, thoroughly engrossing, beautifully acted adaptation of a classic novel that depicts the tragic underside of America’s sunniest decade. Full Review |
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4/5 |
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... Full Review |
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3/6 |
This is a sobering, well-observed film that doesn’t fully hit the mark but sets up enough pleasing ideas to chew on regarding ambition, marriage and ideals of how to live one’s life, individually and as a couple. Full Review |
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3/5 |
A worthy but slightly cold adaptation of a classic American novel that fails to fully engage the audience's sympathy despite first-rate performances and some sublime camerawork by multiple Oscar nominee Roger Deakins. Full Review |
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3/5 |
Ultimately, the performances are (rightly) more involving than the story. By the same token, the actors are more involving than the film. Full Review |
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4/5 |
A deeply felt, moving and genuinely tragic study of a marriage tearing itself apart. Full Review |
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It feels removed from the messy energies and doomy turbulence it depicts, filtering them through an aesthetic sensibility so tasteful, controlled and ultimately second-hand, that it can impress but never truly move us. Full Review |
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2/5 |
It leaves you feeling voyeuristically sullied; scrubbing the blood out of your mental carpet, privy to something simultaneously indulgent and inconsequential. Full Review |
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3/5 |
Mendes is careful to keep the mood largely sombre ahead of a gruesome denouement which, visceral as it is, doesn't alter the pattern of the film; delivering more food for thought than fire in the belly. Full Review |
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3/5 |
In terms of performance and production, this is an undeniably high-quality affair. Yet it’s all rather superficial. Full Review |
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3/5 |
DiCaprio and Winslet channel much nuance into their home-based hell. Mendes’ level-headed helming is best at pinpointing the brutality of banality, while Roger Deakins’ lush cinematography stylises suburbia as a lavish velvet coffin for its residents. Full Review |
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3/5 |
While Yates’ story retains flecks of perceptiveness, this is as disappointing as the characters’ compromises. Full Review |
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3/5 |
The acting impresses, the plight of the characters, less rounded and sympathetic than they are in the book, merely depresses. Roadworthy then, but hardly revolutionary. Full Review |
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8/10 |
A great script, visually stunning cinematography and great direction from Kate’s husband Sam Mendes make this a remarkable experience. Full Review |
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2/5 |
Justin Haythe's disappointing screenplay is less than cinematic. Too much of the dialogue is on-the-nose, and more akin to theatre than real life. Far too much is said. The brilliance of Yates's novel lay in the amount that he left unsaid. Full Review |
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3/5 |
You come out knowing you have seen some great performances, brilliant direction and beautiful cinematography, but it is just not a film you love. Full Review |
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4/5 |
It’s as if someone’s taken the American Dream, lashed it to a table and cut it open to see how it works. An uncomfortable process, to be sure, but an awfully compelling one, too. Full Review |
3 CommentsLatest News for Revolutionary Road
June 01, 2009:
RT on DVD: Defiance, Revolutionary Road, and Snakes on a Submarine
This week on DVD catch up on a few big flicks you might have missed in theaters, including an Oscar-nominated suburban period piece by Sam Mendes (Revolutionary Road, starring... More...
May 28, 2009:
DiCaprio and Winslet reunite for first time since Titanic as Fifties couple in crisis. 
More...
January 25, 2009:
Sean Penn, Meryl Streep win at SAG awards
For the 15th year running, the Screen Actors Guild has gotten together to honor excellence among its members -- and we've reproduced the complete list of winners for the 2008... More...
January 24, 2009:
Iconoclast.com: At any moment, we expect the depressed, chain smoking gilded cage suburban house pet Kate to morph into Sylvia Plath, poised to stick her head in the oven, a premature free spirit imprisoned in a breezy hollow world.
More...
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