Revolutionary Road

I've been on a bit of a movie kick lately. If I get to see Frost/Nixon sometime soon I will have seen all five Oscar nominees for best picture - something I don't think I've ever done before.

This afternoon I went to see Revolutionary Road and it wasn't quite what I'd expected. It was certainly engrossing - I loved the look of it & the acting was terrific, but the story was disappointing. It bugged me that I didn't know enough about the main female character to really understand her, she wasn't very well-rounded. And while I understood that she felt stifled by her 1950s suburban life, the movie could have done a better job of demonstrating what was SO stifling about it. As it's depicted her life doesn't seem so bad & she comes off as completely selfish, self-involved & neurotic. Much more so than her husband. It's hard to have much sympathy for this character. And I really hated the end, with Leonardo DiCaprio saying "She did this to herself!" And then a little coda of a scene with a woman - the real estate agent played by Kathy Bates - blathering on and on while her husband turns down his hearing aid. That's how this movie ends - with a man completely tuning his wife out! What was the point of that?? There are some very good supporting players in this movie, and the costumes and art direction are great, but on the whole I didn't like it much & I think it's offensive to women.