We Can't Wait #8 Revolutionary Road

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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Back in New York

I realize my presence is an abstracted one. It matters not to you where I post from so long as posting happens. But I'm back in Manhattan after a clear my head trip to Connecticut. Just sharing is all...

I already posted about Manderlay. Nick and I also watched Louis Malle's lemon-scented shapeshifter Atlantic City(1980), the Natalie Wood headliner Inside Daisy Clover(1965) which is a dark Hollywood fable. The real mystery of it is how Ruth Gordon managed a supporting actress nomination for it. She's barely in it and the other featured woman (someone I'd never heard of called Katharine Bard) acts circles around her in this messy but intriguing picture. Finally we screened the glitzy Auntie Mame(1958) which I hadn't seen in well over a decade and which Nick had somehow never laid eyes upon.

I Just Adore Connecticut. That Feeling It Gives.

Real life doesn’t often feel like reel life. Yet when events, people, or places somehow do run closely parallel with cinematic twins, it’s hard not to notice. I am currently in Hartford Connecticut. This is my third trip out here to spend some time with Nick. Each time I arrive I remain disappointed that Hartford and its Train Station never once force me into thinking about Cathy Whitaker (i.e. Julianne Moore in Far From Heaven). Hartford and its train station, you see, look nothing like the location and images we see in that splendid Todd Haynes masterpiece. I now occassionally do think of the films as "Far From Hartford".

Nevertheless, when I return to the train station to make the trip back to New York I’m thinking I should wear a purple scarf. It’s my last trip to Hartford (the home of the fictional Whitakers) since Nick is moving to Chicago. At the very least I’ll ask Nick to put some gloves on and wave me goodbye. As the train pulls away I’ll imagine the camera swooping back and up. My iPod will fill my ears with Elmer Bernstein’s brilliant score in tandem with the trains departure.