Fridae

Are you a dreamer? Have you dreamt of a life filled with boundless creativity, travel and freedom? Are you now stuck in a job where you feel chained to convention and strict bureaucracy? Then you'll recognize the characters in this movie all too well.

Revolutionary Road explores that very common struggle all dreamers face when they have to grow up and face the real world. The setting is 1950s post-war America, when the American dream was defined by a good stable white-collar job (for a man) and a suburban home with kids (for a woman).

Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) and April (Kate Winslet) have them all - the job, the kids and the pretty house on a street called Revolutionary Road. But being dreamers at heart, they cannot bring themselves to be happy. On the contrary, he is frustrated with his mundane office job, while she is bored with doing housework and raising kids.

She wants them to leave Revolutionary Road and follow the figurative revolutionary road by going to Paris and living a carefree, bohemian life - at least, that's how she perceives Parisian lives to be. But he is skeptical of their chances of survival there�

Based on a famous novel by Richard Yates and directed by Oscar winner Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Jarhead), Revolutionary Road is sensitively-crafted drama about a struggle that so many of us are familiar with. Perhaps, because it so close to the bone, it may difficult for some of us to watch the film.

Sam Mendes, who also happens to be Kate Winslet's husband, draws perfectly calibrated performances from his actors. Kate displays every turn of emotion on her vivid face, while Leonardo is a tightly-wound knot of nerves that explodes now and again. Looking at this despairing couple, it's hard to believe they once played blissful lovers in a little film called Titanic (1997) - the only other film they've been in together.

Revolutionary Road was nominated for three Oscars, four BAFTAs and four Golden Globes, nabbing the Best Actress Globe for Kate. It is not an easy film to watch, because it is so raw and honest in portraying the boxed life many of us lead. But it also offers some of us the opportunity to examine that life for what it really is.