Revolutionary Road

Mike and I pawned Hank off (our little anchor with a Pull-Up attached) on my dad Sunday afternoon, and got out to a movie. I tell you, it's so rare to actually get out to a movie *theatre* when you have small kids, it's not even funny. We are also cheapskates that loathe paying nearly $10 per ticket to go to a fancy schmancy theatre like Regal, so we wait for things to come to the second run. As you can tell, we don't get out a lot.

Anyway, we saw Revolutionary Road, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Not exactly an uplifter, but a good dramatic film. It takes place during the 50's, and is a saga of suburban married life during that time. Kate is an idealistic budding actress when she meets future husband Leo, a more practical longshoreman, at a party. Soon, we flash to their future: Leo in the audience, applauding gamely at Kate's performance in a small town play while the couple behind him gossips about how poor the actors were. Turns out, Kate's dreams were cut short by an unplanned pregnancy early in their marriage, and they moved to suburbia where Leo could secure a job as a worker bee in the large firm his own father had worked at for twenty years. Another child later, Kate is home looking perfectly miserable in their beautiful house while Leo toils away good-naturedly in a job he despises to support his family. They grow distant, with Leo spending nights on the couch and eyeing cute secretaries. When they decide to throw caution to the wind, sell their house, and pack up their young children to move to Paris and start a new life, you feel the hope come back into their reverie. Things don't go as planned, and their marriage, and Kate's mental health, deteriorate quickly...

It's a downer. Don't go looking for a feel-good movie or a cheerful discourse on marriage. However, it's a solid, thought-provoking film, and we both enjoyed it. Has anyone else seen it?