Revolutionary Road, review and analysis of a masterpiece.
Can you change your life for love? What’s the border between craziness and frustration? Are we really living our lives? This fantastic movie won 20 awards and 73 nominations. It’s an incredible story and let’s discover why.
Introduction to the movie
The movie is set in Connecticut during the mid-1950 and inspired by the book “Revolutionary Road” written by Richard Yates. It’s a story of love, marriages, families and abortion, ambitions and frustrations, of dreamers and conformists. It’s the daily tale of all of us, on the road of our lives. Looking for an often unachievable and unknow happiness. You will ask yourself “what’s the purpose of this life”? It is just about having a good job, a great house, a wife, children? Or there is something more? Like the love for yourself, for your talents, your passions, your desires and dreams. But to find the right answer requires painful choices to be made, and this where this masterpiece guide us. Frank and April Wheeler are the protagonists and to give them voice and action, we have two of the most talented and incredible actors in Hollywood: Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet, directed by Sam Mendes, in one of his most successful films. It’s not a movie for everyone. It’s very sophisticated, well-crafted, a masterpiece, in my opinion. I’m going to tell you why.
The Movie’s Analysis
(It contains spoilers)
Frank and April met each other for the first time. Both full of life and looking for love until they find each other. I think the song they danced tells us something more. The Gypsy is a definition for nomadic and, especially, free spirits people. And it seems to be the perfect description of April, as we are going to discover. She is not interested in what his job is; she wants to know what she can learn from him. It tells us that she is not looking to settle down, but for someone who can stimulate her desire to explore and learn. They dance and, as on a turn of dance, we move into the theatre where April is trying to make real her dream to become a famous actress. But her face tells us that it wasn’t the best performance, again, for her.
If we look at this picture, we notice that Paris wasn’t a sudden idea for April, but something she always carries with her. Look at the photos on the wall, and this is how she sees Frank: happy and full of desire to explore and enjoy life, possibly in Paris. Frank tries to support her in the way home, but not in the way she needed. Frank doesn’t really believe in her dream to be an actress. He wants someone who wants to be his wife and wants to dedicate her time to his children and house. He needed the same life his father had, although he criticised him. Their personality is quite different, and the way to dream too. While they are driving home, we discover a lot of their mutual frustrations.
She failed again in her acting performance; he failed in the way to support her. She failed in the way to listen to him, he on the form to talk to her. Their frustration explodes when he tells her that she is sick on her mind, and she defines him as a not mature man. Who is living a life he doesn’t like and doesn’t try to change to live his potential dream. He tries to punch her but changed his mind in the end. Not the way to act with a sensible soul as April has. The end of the scene is a fantastic photo of their situation. It’s like they stopped their life journey, in the same car, but far away from each other mind.
The day after Frank repeats the ritual of millions of people in this world. He goes to a work which he doesn’t like, dressed the same as the other people, with the same unhappiness of this life empty of emotions. And again, the director picture this moment with very metaphoric images. An anonymous crowd of people, walking to their office, all appearing the same, outside and inside.
But it’s also the day when Frank makes new friend, Maureen. One of his colleague. And, like a victim of his self-delusions, tries to play with her to prove something not clear to himself. We know that he wants to feel the things, as he said so to April. So he is trying to explore new emotions: power, love, sensuality everything he lost in his marriage. Meantime our dreamer April, remember of once they took their house. Of their dreams, their hopes to be someone different from the other people. While she remembers the past, he is working on his present. And April, during her day after her theatre fiasco, has been recalled by her neighbour how special she is. Something that she seems don’t believe anymore. At the restaurant, Frank tell us something more about him, and why April chose him. He didn’t want to end up like his father, working his whole life ad having an anonymous life as all the other. But Frank is there. Doing exactly what he didn’t want to do. Well, a bit like the most of us but with a different weight assigned from his wife to this.
But finally, we have a change of mood. April looked again at the photo of Frank in Paris when he was a soldier. And she remembers the beautiful words Frank used to say about Paris. A place where people are alive not like there. And she dreams about this and builds her story in her mind, telling him that he is the most interesting person she has ever met. And then another great shot of the director, which breaks the romance of that moment to bring us into the bitter reality. “The most interesting person” was meantime making a new friend, as we said. And I mean literally making. It’s the continue contraposition of their personalities.
He is now back at home. Worried about meet April again, and of the negative energies behind them. But something unusual is happening for him. She opens the door beautiful as she can be, well dressed and with a new dream to share, celebrating with a surprise Frank’s birthday. The perfect way to recover the time wasted fighting each other while celebrating the beauty of their family. Something so beautiful that makes Frank cries tears which need to clean his soul, after what he did. He understands his mistake and the love he has for her. It’s time for “the most wonderful idea”. April is full of hopes and dreams for their future — something which Frank doesn’t really understand.
She tells him to move to Paris. The city he loves. To start a new life where he can have the time to discover what he wants to be. But again, Frank breaks her dreams. Paris is not very realistic for Frank. And, somehow we can even agree with him. It’s not something that difficult to understand. They have children, and he has a job. They got the house. But she is a bit Gypsy. A free mind with a lot of wishes and curiosities. And she convinced him to move. Because he is the most beautiful person and Frank needs to find himself again. She is trying to make her relationship alive again. She never gave up on this. And he is another man the day after. He doesn’t care about his job. Frank feels free and starts to confront society with his idea to move to Paris. And well, the society which is everything expects that a dreamer, consider him a bit crazy. And with a regenerated spirit, he works even better that day, as never has done. A part of him starts to live again. The same is for April in the beauty of her happiness while collecting her travel tickets to Paris. The dream is becoming real.
And another fantastic way to describe the change by the movie director. He doesn’t walk anymore with the other people, he observes now. And he arrives before them to his destination, another metaphor, because he is not part of them anymore. He is part of his family.
It’s time to get to know their friend and neighbour: Shep and Milly. The first one fully in love with April, the second one knows it but keep it for herself. In her another little drama. And also they consider their idea to move overseas a bit crazy, as their expression suggests. And confront Frank and April on an embarrassing conversation. But they’re too happy, so happy that they make love and something else, as we will see.
But, life often moves from time too quiet to time with several changes. And for Frank is time for a job promotion. Meantime, a new character is introduced to them and us: John. He is a mathematician, victim of society, treated for mental illness. This character is significant because he is the voice out of the choir. He is the sound of a possible truth, as this one seems to belong to the children and the crazy person, who can be who they want to be, without caring of the society. And they talk about the hopelessness emptiness of the people, which is moving them to Paris. But he doesn’t like it even if he seems to be the only one who understands April’s idea to move.
It’s the lunch of the promotions. Frank ask his boss if he remembers of his father who worked for 20 years in the company. And the answer is no.
After 20 years dedicated to the company, they don’t even know him. It’s the tragedy of an anonymous life. And it is the same as most of us. Back to his office, he thinks about the promotions. “Know what you got, know what you need, know what you can do”. And Frank is again with Maureen, almost living a parallel life.
The day after April is nervous again. Nothing happened apparently. And she is aggressive with her daughter, something which Frank doesn’t like at all. And we discover the new change of the story. April is pregnant. Something to celebrate for Frank, something which is an obstacle to Paris for her.
Again, they have different perspectives on life. She discovers that he didn’t turn off the idea of a job promotion, and she starts to feel trapped between the new baby and Frank’s job. Her life begins to be pictured again in the US, far away from the legendaries stories of Paris.
But we are going back to the frustration of the car scene, at the beginning of the movie. He tries to get the merit to provide for her and his family.
She tells him that he doesn’t have the backbones to live the life he wants. Making him a loser and not the person she decided to love. And in that moment of chaos, he found out that she is thinking about the abortion.
And he gets crazier than her. Again, this doesn’t seem to be the way to talk to April. She is broken and makes a wall between them. But she says something not pleasant to hear, that their first baby was a mistake. And this breaks Frank. And again he tells her that she is insane and sick. And now Frank is breaking April’s soul, again.
And their lives take different paths when he says that Paris was “a childish idea”. The dreams where their relationship got their basement have been all destroyed. And the day after he witnesses again the disappointment of her daughter talking to her mother. It’s time to confront the society again. Frank tells his colleague that he is not going to Paris anymore. And everyone starts to say to him that this makes sense. And the gang of friends is again together, for the happiness of everyone. Well except April of course. I think their faces tell more than I can describe.
But April which remains alone with Shep, tell us a lot of her frustration. She doesn’t care about Paris. She wanted him in, back again to the hopes they had about their life. And she doesn’t even know what this means. But that they wanted to be different from the emptiness of the other people. And she admits that Frank got what he wanted: a family, a house, a wife. But she didn’t get anything of what she wanted. She starts to dance with him, almost celebrating a new life for her, which ends with her betrayal against Frank.
And again, the director makes a great move. The day after he tells her that he had an affair with another woman. On a miserable attempt to be honest with her and starts a new life. But she doesn’t feel anything. She doesn’t care anymore. And to try to bring order, we listen again the voice of the unwanted truth: John. “Jack, what happened” to the dreams and to the plan to go to Paris. “Have you become too comfy, making April play the role of the good wife?” Frank reacts this time. And very bad. But John closed the scene with a sentence which has a powerful impact on April. “I’m glad to don’t be that baby” — words which seem to have a significant impact on April’s decisions.
Then he tries to defend himself, but when he defines the craziness of John, she reacted crazily too. Till she finally says that she doesn’t love him anymore, she hates him. And he acts like a crazy and frustrated man deluded by life. “Then why are you living with me? Why are you carrying my child?”
It will be a long night, one which should bring order and new motivations. And the day after something incredible happens. April comes back home, preparing breakfast for her husband. Sweet as never, opened to listen more about this new job opportunity. She is now the perfect wife Frank wanted to have. But he is perplexed about this. And he is right because April decides to show him how great she is at acting. Her role as an actress is the best thing she chose to do. To offer him a possible last day together, and give him the most beautiful memories of her to him. She let him live his dream to have a wonderful wife, who takes care of him; of his desires and needs. The most beautiful interpretation for this actress of life. Or maybe just to show him what he is going to miss, just because he wasn’t able to listen to her. And the final kiss is the perfect celebration of the moment. Of the moment, because then we discover how great she acted for him, while she starts to cry for their love and their dreams which are going to end.
She decides to kill the last thing which broke her dreams of a new life: her new baby. John’s word seems to have a tragic impact on her. The scene is really intense. What we see is the blood of blessing, like in an archaic ritual. The blood is offered as a sacrifice. To honour her dreams and principles of the life she dreamed. And maybe to ask the Gods for forgiveness for what she did.
The photography in this movie is incredible. As the move it is. Di Caprio puts in his face the pain of all of us, discovering the death of April. And his failure as husband and partner in crime of April.
As we mentioned, the photography of the movie is outstanding and beautiful. Look at the “perfect” triangle of his family. In the emptiness of his loneliness, he needs to take care of his dreams and family. Without the woman who made all of that possible for him. The same woman he wasn’t able to understand, to listen, to treat with the gentle touch she deserved.
The movie ends, leaving us more bitter than we imagined. The woman who defined April special shows the hypocrisy of a society, which doesn’t learn much from life. And the most unexpected person teach us what to do. Turn off the volume from the malicious gossip of who refuses to learn, even from the most desperate act April gave to herself. A simple story maybe, but full of meanings for all of us.
Character’s Analysis
Who are our characters? What did they want? What did they do to get it? What consequences they had to face? And how they changed at the end of the story? Let’s start our analysis with Frank Wheeler.
Frank Wheeeler
When we met him for the first time, he was a nice guy, living a simple life. He wanted to travel to see the world, after his experience during the war. But it seems that for him is just a way to think about life, but he is not really available to engage a change of life. The more we look at his reactions during the story, we noticed that he needs to have what he wanted to avoid for his life: a job which he doesn’t like and the ordinary life of the majority of the people taking the train with him every morning. He needed a wife, maybe a conventional wife, who can take care of his children and house. That’s the way where he can feel alive, providing for his family and be “the man of the house”. But this internal confusion generates a lot of sufferances for him and his children. Exactly what he wanted to avoid, it became the worse real nightmare of his life, when April decided to continue with the risky abortion. Frank seems to be the victim of his ambiguous desires, of his willingness to be the man of the family. Someone who will be his wife’s proud and an example for his children. But everything worked out against him, as a punishment of the Gods for his constant indecisions, and for the wrong way he chose to take care of April.
April Wheeler
When we met April for the first time, she was a gorgeous lady looking for someone interesting, whom she can share her life with and her desire to discover the world and her dreams. She wanted to be an actress. She wanted to travel the world and, especially, she didn’t want to have the everyday life everyone else had: a house, kids and a working husband. She believed she found in Frank all of this. She didn’t care about his job or money. But in his desire to travel and to live in another country. We can easily understand what she wanted. She mentioned a couple of time during the movie. She needed someone ready to bet on his dreams, as she tried to do it. She needed to be different, to be a bit of a Gipsy, at least in her soul and mind. She tried in any possible way to wake up in Frank that passion and desire she dreamt that could exist in him. She was loyal to her principles and dreams. But all of this changed her. She became more aggressive with her daughter, almost crazy. And she paid the highest price for this determination to keep going with the life she dreamt. She died. And it seems that she left to Frank what he wanted in his life: a house and a family, but without the person who made possible all of this. And with the most precious gift which was while she was preparing breakfast for an incredulous Frank. She acted to show him what he was going to lose very soon: the perfect wife who can make him happy and unique. The last chance to be together and to be an actress. A last kiss, the last tears in her face for a life she couldn’t stand, and for a role she couldn’t play anymore.
Both characters didn’t evolve during the development of the story. They remained to their starting ideas we have discovered at the beginning of the movie. Frank couldn’t embrace his dream to live a life different from the emptiness of the other people; to live his life at the fullest. April didn’t change her starting position too. Indeed she fought to make his dreams happening. Neither of them tried to adapt to each other, and maybe this is why this drama left a bitter taste on us. And they paid an excruciating price for their mistakes. Perhaps it should teach a lesson to each of us, in the journey of our stories.
Conclusions
I believe that they couldn’t fix their issues anyway. Simply because they didn’t love each other, but the idea they built of them and of what they want to have. It was inevitable that they tried to change each other, to adapt to their vision of a relationship. And this is a drama that lot of us had or have to face in their lives. There are no winners or losers, or maybe death and loneliness won over their dreams and lives. Conformist against nonconformist, tradition against the desire to be different and new.
The actors are two legends of Hollywood, and both of them deserve a 10 for their interpretation. And for how they keep us engaged in their troubles. The director did an excellent job of picturing this story and, to me, this movie deserves a final 10/10. I recommend you to watch it or to watch it again, after you read this analysis.
What would you have done if you were Frank? And what if you were April? Are you fully living your dreams? Your life? How much can you sacrifice for your values?
I always suggest to put yourself in those situations. I believe it is the perfect way to self develop yourself through the beauty of the movies. Let me know in the comment section and feel free to share this article with the people you think can enjoy this content.
