Directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jarhead)Starring Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kathy Bates and Michael Shannon
Based on the novel by Richard Yates about a young couple in 1950s Connecticut struggling with marital problems.
Brought to you by BBC Films and Dreamworks
Expected Release Date December 19th, 2008
Nathaniel: Jack (DiCaprio) and Rose (Winslet) are together again. This time they're called Frank and April and they're married with children. Is reteaming the Titanic superstars a brilliant stroke of casting, insuring a big audience for what is essentially a period marital drama? Or an impossibly reckless move, sure to lead this movie straight into a critical or populist ("I like your old stuff better than your new stuff") iceberg?
Joe: I don't think the Kate/Leo reteaming is going to mean much of anything at the box office, but I'm really pulling for something special onscreen;. He's a much better actor now, so I think it'll be something exciting. Plus I remember Kate called him a "girl's blouse" one time on Letterman and that always made me laugh. Anyway, what is it about Kate Winslet that keeps making me want to delve into the private hell of marriage in suburbia? Hopefully this one gets better studio support than Little Children.Gabriel: Joe's absolutely right...if the studio gets behind Revolutionary Road , it's got all the elements necessary for a classic (and an Oscar contender). If it's as good as it deserves to be, maybe Kate will finally get that Oscar she's deserved for so, so, SO long.
MaryAnn: I don't know anything about this movie, but I'm psyched to see these two together again.Glenn: I'm hoping for - more than a magical reconnection between Jack and Rose - is that Revolutionary Road is a return to form for Sam Mendes. He's shown he's more adept to movies about suburbia than, say, war movies. But, of course, much like a film a bit further up in the countdown is another movie with a ridiculously pretty pair of lead actors. Marketing those two films is going to be gorgeous, is it not?
Nathaniel: We'll get to what Glenn's hinting about soon enough. For now, bask in that Kate and Leo goodness. Try to figure why Connecticut is always the setting for unhappy marriages (see also: Far From Heaven, The Ice Storm, The Ref, etc...) Ponder why Mendes has gone so Titanic alum with the casting: the Unsinkable Molly Brown (Kathy Bates) returns, too.
the countdown
#1 Synecdoche, New York / #2 Burn After Reading / #3 Australia / #4 Milk / #5 Blindness / # 6 Doubt / #7 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button / #8 Revolutionary Road / #9 The Dark Knight / #10 Sex & The City: The Movie / #11 The Lovely Bones / #12 Wall-E / #13 Stop-Loss / #14 The Women / #15 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince / Introduction / Orphans
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Posts
34 comments:
I can't wait for this movie. On paper (and we all know movies that look good on paper deliver... right? ... right? *awkward silence*) it looks great and yes, the casting of the greatest 90s couple to hit the screen and trailblaze through box-office records and Naked Gold Man-Land is sure to create at least some necessary buzz and what are sure to be awfully-punned journalistic titles and review quotes.
"A Titanic reteaming!"
"I'm the king of... Suburbia?"
"She never did let go..."
Am I the only one who likes JARHEAD a lot?
Yes, yes, "Revolutionary Road", really wanna see it... But let's talk about that new banner - lovin' it! But really, why Ms. Cotillard? Irony? She's still a baby! The obvious replacement would be Julie Christie's high school photo, but how about some early Viggo? I would love me some early Viggo. Hehe. No but really, great banner. It is 'banner', right? God, for as much as I blog, I'm still so virginal.
i love sam mendes...i really am interested to see how this one turns out!
As someone who...
a) will defend American Beauty till death
b) Thinks Kate Winslet is the best actress of her generation (shouldn't she have 3-4 Oscars by now?)
c) Thinks Leonardo DiCaprio is amont the best actors working today AND
d) Is an unsahamed admirer of Titanic (and not even in the "guilty pleasure" sense)
... I can honestly say that this is my most anticipated film of the year. I didn't think much of Road to Perdition but Jarhead was a good film (if not great) and I hope Mendes is back in form this time around.
the big selling point and the studio will def utilise it come oscar and release time is kate leo,1 thing worries me like you nat the late release date and expected frontrunner status it killed atonement nearly,i think if kte pulls this off and the movie is financially successful and criticallly liked then she will win her 1st oscar the only thing i see in her way is meryl streep who is hnting for a 3rd so to speak or anne hathaway who is deglamming,oscar is sure to love the fact that they could honour leo and kate the stars of the biggest most oscared movie on the same night,they will no pass that oppurtunity up!!!!
Sid, I'm with you if you ever need to defend American Beauty and Titanic. They're classics.
I'm with Sid on defending American Beauty, Titanic, and it stars - but for some reason, I can't get too excited about this. I can't quite put my finger on it, but maybe it's that it seems to be the big Oscar frontrunner a year in advance, and we know how that usually turns out.
kurtis stephen picked the banner. it's not like I would put Marion up there when I could've had Viggo or Jluie ;)
I always said the day Kate works with her husband she'll win the oscar... I hope I'm proved right!
Titanic winning over L.A Confidential = Crash winning over Brokeback Mountain
I've always felt kind of ambivalent about American Beauty. I think it's well made, but there's something about it (Kevin Spacey?) that rubs me the wrong way. Still, this should be good.
Maybe I'll get ahold of the book first...
arlov -OUCH. Titanic is like 100 times better than Crash...
I liked LA Confidential a lot but the ending I can't say i got behind. It felt very "and they all lived happily ever after" for what was essentially a noir. Since when do noirs end happily? ;)
i think it is the perfs in both films la conf and american b that lift thise film name any actor in either film and they're all oscar worthy,suprised bentley and suvari were not nommed in 99 and crowe and cromwell in 97.
i think it is the perfs in both films la conf and american b that lift thise film name any actor in either film and they're all oscar worthy,suprised bentley and suvari were not nommed in 99 and crowe and cromwell in 97.
kate w does so may great things in titanic,i used to think it was a default nod but not anymore it really is the scarlett o hara of my generation.
"American Beauty"'s horrible. I hated it with every core of my being. Christ that shit was bad. But I'm not giving up on Sam Mendes yet, and the Kate/Leo pairing again is too irresistable not to at least give a chance.
On another note, when will the actor pages be updated with the "Why were they nominated" percentages? That's the only reason why I visit here, and the clock's ticking with the Oscars 8 days away. Please update it! I love reading those.
if that's the only reason you're reading... sheesh.
Actually, that's how I found this site in the first place. I meant that the pages are what keep me reading. It was a compliment in my blunt way, believe it or not.
I don't get the Kate Winslet love.
If I'm honest, I am extremely pessimistic about this movie. I'd be happy to be proven wrong but this screams, "Prestige!" at me oh so loudly.
But If I'm wrong, I'd be ecstatic. I love Winslet
The book is fantastic, but I'm a little nervous about Sam Mendes directing it. He's kind of hit and miss. However, with DiCaprio+Winslet+Deakins how can this be bad?
Forget this leading Oscar for Winslet. Nobody can beat Julianne Moore. Winslet still can wait. If Moore loses next year, goodbye forever leading Oscar, try supporting (as a supportive mother like Dukakis). Go Moore!
- cal roth
Just thinking about this today....after having read Revolutionary Road. I think the casting sounds extremely on the mark for some reason (could it be that they're all REALLY GOOD actors?). Beyond Kate and Leo, though, I'm thinking about Kathy Bates (perfect casting for her role, if not exactly a stretch) and the guy from "Bug" who will play her loony son in this, and maybe have the funniest scenes. There's real potential there, if you know what I mean. The script is the main thing I'm concerned about. Does it capture the book????
this is #8? and the dark knight is #9? what the heck is gonna be #1? o_O
Kate is Love...that is all.
Zee.
Kate is Love...that is all.
Zee.
I'm really looking forward to this movie. I just hope that it isn't done in by its hype.
I absolutely hated the book, but it's Oscar bait if nothing else. I would totally bank on Kathy Bates and Michael Shannon getting nominations, Kathy Bates has the most sympathetic character but it really depends on whether she can cry more convincingly than she did in 'Primary Colors'... Michael Shannon has the kind of awesome little character that winds up and nearly saves the story with its sheer breathtakingness. Unfortunately, he leaves the story without his plotline completely resolved.
DiCaprio has a fleshed-out and faceted, if unsympathetic role, and in the book the Winslet character comes out as a lot less sympathetic than I think the author would like. The author has nothing but contempt for his characters - it was hard to read for this reason. It's still a strong-ish role, but I'm expecting her to be better in 'The Reader'.
However Mendes is amazing, and I'm expecting this to be a much better experience than the book was.
Apologies for double posting, but I'm thrilled that the supporting cast is mostly made up of little-known (in film, at least) theater actors - Kathryn Hahn, David Harbour, Zoe Kazan etc.
Kathryn Hahn & David Harbour are great choices, although I don't really see Zoe Kazan as fitting the Maureen Grube character.
This is, if anything, going to be an "actor's playhouse". That's the main reason I'm excited about it, aside from the fact that it's Revolutionary Road, one of the greatest grief-stricken novels about suburbia, U.S.A., and the human condition by extension, ever written. I think that Kathy Bates' character is hardly much more sympathetic than any of the others, really. She's living in a fog, kind of like everyone else, wanting to think that somehow things can be better, but too human to see that they are actually rather ordinary... that failure/disappointment is the most likely outcome. It really is one of the most despairing and yet truthful books I've ever read. Really sad. And there is actually real empathy for the characters, though it's often been misinterpreted by those who don't like it.
I agree with whipsmart that Winslet may get more attention for The Reader (although if it's a romance with the noseless fishbelly white Voldemort Ralph Fiennes, I'll take Revolutionary Road).
I think the reteaming of the Kate and Leo film couple should be good for both. In Titanic, Kate looked older than her age, and Leo looked younger than his. Kate now looks younger and every atom infused with sexuality (rather than it spilling out) and Leo looks older, as though he's jumped into middle age, with the forehead wrinkles from a habitual self-important intensity, but without much emotional growth. He needs to work with an actress who can challenge him (and that would be Kate!).
http://blogs.indiewire.com/tully/archives/013078.html
I agree with the others that are excited about this based on the novel being so excellent (although, I hate to loose it as a little best kept not-so-secret!). All the major players seem strong, good cast, although Lilly Lebowski from Crossing Jordan as the best friend to Kate? Maybe.
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