Movie reviews

REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
CAST: Leonardo DiCaprio,Kate Winslet,Kathy Bates,Michael Shannon
DIRECTOR: Sam Mendes
A Decade after he made American Beauty,Sam Mendes peeps into the life of another family living in the suburbs,playing at being happy as the path of least resistance. He has a nice job,they a big home and lawn and two beautiful children. “It should be enough,” says wife April Wheeler. Then,one day,she decides it isn’t,and their world and that of those around them is suddenly facing truths it would rather not look at.
The film is based on a prize-winning novel written in 1961 by Richard Yates,and according to one reviewer,“located the new American tragedy squarely in the field of marriage”. Marriage that comes with its set of limitations,its quota of rules and its share of children.
“You want to play house,you got to have a job. You want to play nice house,very sweet house,you got to have a job you don’t like,” notes a prescient observer (Shannon),admitted into an asylum for “mental problems”.
Frank Wheeler (DiCaprio) finds himself in one such job in the same company where his father worked 20 years ago. He and April (Winslet) moved to the Revolutionary Road in the suburbs for the kids,telling themselves it was a temporary move,telling themselves they would never be like their neighbours,telling themselves they were special,“wonderful in this world”.
While complaining about the boredom of his job,Frank has reconciled himself to it,even to the short flings with the secretary he finds no reason to defend. Till one day he comes home and April raises the possibility of rediscovering a life they had tucked away as the “past”. They will sell everything,cash in their savings,she says,and move to Paris – a city Frank loves. She will get a well-paid job as secretary and he can stay at home,figure out what he wants to do with life.
Initially hesitant,Frank is quickly brought around to seeing “the hopelessness,emptiness of their lives” (“Most people are on to the emptiness,” says the aforementioned observer. “It requires real guts to acknowledge the hopelessness”). How can Frank say no?
When they break the news to their neighbours and colleagues,the latter talk of the impracticality of it,refusing to acknowledge either their envy or admiration.
However,even as April starts making the preparations,Frank – now actually having to discover “what he always wanted to do” – recedes in the background. A surprise promotion and raise don’t help matters. Does he really hate his job so much? The new romance in their marriage leaves April pregnant. Will he let it come in the way? She is apprehensive it will,and her tentative suggestions of an abortion suddenly put question marks over her motherhood. Does Frank really want that child,she asks,or does that give him the excuse he needs? Is it his life that needs changing,she wonders,or is it hers?
As their disagreements crack the myth of “the Happy Wheelers on Revolutionary Road”,their life hurtles towards tragedy.
2008 was Winslet’s year,with this being her other award-winning performance besides The Reader. Her April Wheeler has a quiet storm brewing inside her; hints of it visible in the sweat on her forehead,her desperate one-night fling,her stillness in the middle of a heated clash,in the way she beats an egg,and finally in the organised way she goes about her final act.
DiCaprio,the excellent actor that he is,is the observer of this film. Note the spring in his step as he gleefully breaks the news of their France sojourn to colleagues – as something he always wanted – and how this changes to trepidation every time he watches April. He is unsure of what she will require of him next,and we know he is afraid she knows that.
“You know what’s so good about the truth?” says April. “Everyone knows what it is. No one forgets the truth,Frank. We just get better at lying.”

MILK
CAST: Sean Penn,James Franco,Emile Hirsch
Director: Gus Van Sant
THE year was 1977,and America’s first openly gay man was trying to get elected to a public office talking of the need for change and to never lose hope. Twenty years later,America has got its first Black president talking exactly the same.
So there couldn’t have been a better time to tell Harvey Milk’s story. Even the gay rights movement is currently fighting the ban on same-sex marriage in California,a cause Milk would have certainly taken up.
However,what makes this film over and above that is Penn’s performance,from the time he accosts a young man called Scott (Franco) in the subway to when he first holds a loudspeaker to demand the right not to be hauled off the streets under any pretext. He submerges himself in the role of Milk,and like the political activist,he is hopeful without being unrealistic,ambitious without being impractical,and brave while being touchingly human. Never a caricature of a gay man,he is as “normal” as the next man without ever letting you forget his orientation.
Milk’s biggest achievements were made through the smallest gestures. “Let’s all come out to our friends,families,colleagues,” he said. “Let people know that they all know one of us.” It’s a powerful idea,and Penn conveys that sense of greatness in small things.
The film itself is an able chronicler of Milk’s life and times,from TV footage of far-right hysteria to the tension on the streets. It has some very good performances and tells Milk’s story to the last detail,including his last fling.
However,the one disappointment is Milk’s rival Dan White (Brolin),who eventually shot him. Gus Van Sant spends quite a bit of time on him,perhaps a reflection of White’s complex character,but still we never really get the sense of what drove him.

OUT OF BOUNDS
CAST: Michele Venitucci,Maya Sansa
DIRECTOR: Fulvio Bernasconi
AN ITALIAN film on the underground world of illegal boxing,Fuori Dalle Corde (Out of Bounds) explores the desperation of poverty,the indulgence of money and the seduction of violence through the story of a failed boxer,Mike.
Mike has the talent but not the money to back it. The debts are being managed by his sister,who has put her life on hold since she was 15 to support his ambition and her dream of seeing him as champion. Under the pressure of all this,Mike caves in,resorting to desperate measures. It takes him down a path he only vaguely anticipates.
Venitucci,who plays Mike,won the Best Actor award at the 2007 Locarno Film Festival.

shalini.langer@expressindia.com