It Takes Real Guts To See The Hopelessness.

There was an awful lot of hype and expectation in the lead up to the release of Revolutionary Road a couple of years ago. Too much. Enough to kill it. Not only was it the first time Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet had starred together since the biggest blockbuster (in unadjusted terms) up until then, but it was also the first time Winslet had worked with her husband, acclaimed director Sam Mendes. It was a period piece, set in the post-WWII American suburbs, it was Jack and Rose all grown up. Jack hadn't died, the Titanic hadn't sunk, and now they had to work out how to live together. The dream was over.

And then the film just... well, it didn't seem to gain the traction it should have. The reviews were luke-warm, the trailer just looked strange, it didn't look like the huge success it should have been. And that's probably because it was never going to be the next Titanic, it was never meant to be that way. It was a little quasi-indie adult drama, not the next fix for lusty teenagers. The expectation felt like Titanic 2 while the reality was something entirely different.

That being said, it's not a bad film. The beginning of the film sees Frank (DiCaprio) and April (Winslet) meeting at a party, and in no time they're married and living in a nice little house in the suburbs with a couple of kids. Frank doesn't like his job, April is trying to rediscover some passion in her life with an ill-fated amateur theatre company debut, and the cracks start to show in their marriage. April's feelings are that they have sold out on their ideals and dreams to move to the 'burbs with their kids and fulfill that expected American dream. Frank is working in a job that he hates, working long hours and taking bits on the side from a girl in the typing pool while April is languishing at home wishing she were anywhere but there. They fight and fight, and then they have a realisation - Paris.

Their decision to pack up and move so that April can take a well-paid government secretarial position while Frank stays at home to discover whatever it is he wants to do with his life puts a temporary patch on their marital issues, but quickly cracks start to appear, initially from around the edges where external factors start to niggle, quickly cracking through to the centre, letting it all fall in on itself. What kind of a man in 1950s America moves to Paris to let his wife support him while he sits around and reads? It's an assault to his masculinity coupled with a particularly (un)fortuitous moment at work and a sudden unexpected pregnancy, giving Frank an out he may have wanted all along.

I love the way Mendes directs his film. He was an acclaimed stage director before moving into film with American Beauty back at the turn of the millenium, and you can feel that stage influence, though not in the same way you get it with the likes of Rob Marshal's musicals. It doesn't really feel like the actors are on a stage and being shot flat, but the way Mendes utilises the frame and the space within it, often composing a number of people through distance in much the same way as one might in a theatre. He's not afraid to allow empty space to fill the screen with his actors on either periphery to enhance the feeling of distance emotionally in the scene, creating an aching longing in the viewer to close the gap. He's taken the best part of the stage and transposed it onto the screen, and it allows him so much more room to move.

The screenplay by Justin Haythe is great, the lines spoken (or, more often than not, screamed) are for the most part beautiful, poignant, scathing and real, even as they are many times somewhat verbose. The photography from Roger Deakins is beautiful, marrying in with Mendes aesthetic perfectly and giving that '50s America a slightly distant but wonderfully close-to-home feel. It was, however, the performances that won me over. Both DiCaprio and Winslet... it was amazing to watch them together again, because it was incredible to see how much they have both grown. It really was like watching children all grown-up and suddenly able to do things you'd only ever dreamed about. Watching them separately in other films, I'd always known that they had retained and improved on their talents, but seeing them together again, playing off each other like that, after, what, a decade and a bit was a terrific experience. And they were backed up by terrific supports from Kathy Bates as their estate agent Helen and Michael Shannon as her crazed son John, a role he nabbed an Oscar nomination for.

It's not a perfect film by any stretch of the imagination, but, especially now thinking back to when I saw it a week ago, it is very solid. 4 stars.

It's Not The Cheating. It's The Hunger.

Let me get this straight from the outset: Kate Winslet can pretty much do no wrong in my eyes. In fact, I'm sitting here and I can't think of a single time she has wronged me (for in my world, every poor choice or performance or speech or dress is a personal insult.)


So, I'm not going to rave about her performance. It should also be noted that Jennifer Connelly can do very little wrong. Requiem For A Dream effectively quashed any ability for me to talk down about her. 


Onwards to Little Children. I liked this film, I didn't love it. Winslet plays Sarah Pierce, a woman in an unhappy marriage, looking after her daughter Lucy. She takes Lucy to the park where Lucy doesn't really mingle with the other children - but Sarah doesn't really mingle with the other mothers either. Sarah doesn't seem to fit their mould of perfection. She forgets things, she's not all out to impress every minute of every day. This, of course, leads to her getting the man.

The man in question is Brad (Patrick Wilson), dubbed the Prom King by the other mothers. He's unemployed, looking after his young son while his wife Kathy (Jennifer Connelly) earns a living making documentaries. He's sometimes seen at the park where Sarah and the other mothers are every day, and one day, to get a rise out of the ladies watching, the two hug. And then kiss. And then Sarah follows him to the pool, where he is every day, orchestrating some 'oh wow, hi, didn't know you were here' moments, upon which they become friends and then lovers.


While this is going on, Ronnie (Jackie Earle Haley) has moved back into the neighbourhood. So what? So, he's a convicted child molester. There is a quasi-vigilante movement led by ex-cop Larry (Noah Emmerich) to get rid of him, and Brad finds himself mixed up in it, really as a cover and a distraction from the feelings he is developing towards Sarah. But they don't stop, and the effect Ronnie has on the neighbourhood is keep them constantly on edge.


It's a couple of simple stories that are nicely woven together to form something that appears superficially to be a little more complex than it really is, but it's nice to know what's going on all of the time. It's well written, well acted (Haley and Winslet picked up Oscar noms as Support and Lead respectively), but I have a few quibbles with the way director Todd Field makes his films. The same problem I had with his previous effort In The Bedroom I have with Little Children, and that is that it all feels just a little too stylised, a little too particular, to quite hit home. It doesn't quite ring true because it all seems a little... well, hyper. Hyper-real, perhaps. It doesn't sing truth when that is what I think the film needs. The stylisation distances me from the narrative a little, makes me feel very much like I'm on the outside looking in when I think I need to be feeling every beat of fear, terror, guilt and desire that these characters are feeling. It's way too intellectual and not nearly visceral enough to make a lasting impression.


It does look beautiful, however. Antonio Calvache shot it beautifully. So credit there. And the elements were individually quite solid. They just didn't quite add up to the whole that the film could have been. 3.5 stars.

Affairs Are Much More Exciting Than Marriages.

Heavenly Creatures was not Peter Jackson's debut, far from it, but it is probably the film that first had him noticed largely on a global scale, and netted him (and his wife, Fran Walsh) his first Oscar nomination (of eight in total, with three wins for the last Lord Of The Rings pic) for Best Original Screenplay.

It was, however, the inimitable Kate Winslet's first film, and what a debut it was, considering in the 15 years following the film she was nominated for six Oscars and won one. Winslet plays the part of Juliet Hulme in this true story of a horrible murder in New Zealand in the 50s. Juliet is a teenager recently relocated to a Christchurch school after spending a number of years abroad with her family. She is partnered in art class with Pauline (Melanie Lynskey), an outcast, and they instantly become friends. Juliet takes Pauline in a rich fantasy world, which Pauline relishes as an escape. The girls quickly embark on a relationship apparently deeper than platonic, and it is decided by Juliet's parents that, with her father relocating back to the UK and considering Juliet has recently spent some months in hospital with TB, Juliet should go to live with family in South Africa. Meanwhile, Pauline's parents are in the process of divorcing, and the two girls concoct a plan that they may stay together, with tragic and infamous consequences for Pauline's mother Honora (Sarah Peirse.) I won't say what those consequences are in case you are somehow unfamiliar with either the film or the case.

Winslet and Lynskey (who has since gone on to fame with Two And A Half Men and a role in Up In The Air) both give auspicious performances. Winslet's especially garnered much acclaim, and the two sides of her character portrayed (the outwardly confident teenage imaginer and the dark and depressed internal demon) are pitch perfect. It's worth noting that a year after this debut she picked up her first Oscar nod for Sense And Sensibility. Allun Bollinger (who also shot The Frighteners and 2nd Unit on the LOTR trilogy for Peter Jackson) presents the film beautifully, with the setting rendered extremely well by the designers in all fields, mixing real scenery with heightened fantasy seamlessly.

Jackson himself shows off the style that got him noticed in schlock pictures such as Braindead and Bad Taste, retro horror gore stylings, but reigns them in enough such that the film is simply given a very unique look and feel, plays differently to a perfectly straight representation of a story that would be very interesting in itself. His touch lifts it that little bit higher, giving the film an edge that draws you in.

A solid breakout for Jackson and some terrific first-time performances make this a 4 star film.