December
30
Oscar Watch: Whither Revolutionary Road?
Judging from the latest round of voting from the Gurus O' Gold, the top four Oscar sure shots are not at all surprising:
1. Slumdog
2. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
3. Milk
4. Frost/Nixon
And the consensus on the fifth slot is Dark Knight, with two actor-friendly dramas, Doubt and Revolutionary Road, nipping at its heels. Now's the time that the Academy voters are actually looking (or not looking) at their stacks of DVDs.
Which leads me to wonder why Revolutionary Road waited until the day after Christmas to open? It's not an overtly commercial movie, although many seem to regard it as a big-studio vehicle because of its two stars. (They helped the movie grab a high per-screen-average in limited release.) So it would have been a dicey, costly proposition to hold it in theaters a long time, risking that it would lose steam, as Frost/Nixon has done. But the Academy still likes Frost/Nixon--in this case, its lack of commerciality will be boosted by multiple Oscar nominations, so Universal just has to hang in there.
Usually you can get away with a late entry if you have names like Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio because Academy voters will be sure to watch the movie. Rev Road is just the sort of well-executed high-end literary drama the Academy usually goes for. That's why I'm missing that sense of growing momentum that it should have right now.
By waiting so long, the movie may have lost the opportunity to be explained and supported by critics and press. I feel much of the media stories were more about literary assessments of author Richard Yates than the movie itself. (Discovering Yates was my interest too.)
The movie scored a 70 on Metacritic, which is good, not great. (Benjamin Button got a 69, but it has epic scale and scope; all the tech branches will go for it.) Among Rev Road's champions are Rolling Stone's Peter Travers, who praises DiCaprio, and New York's David Edelstein, who admires Mendes' direction of actors:
Though I’ve never been sold on Mendes’s films (the waterlogged Road to Perdition, pulp plus metaphysics, is an eye-roller), the theater work of his I’ve seen has been uniformly wonderful. Onstage, he has a grasp of design as metaphor, and every dramatic beat is on the nose (without being too on the nose). Revolutionary Road plays to his strengths. The visual set pieces, like the sea of hats emerging from the New York train station, are self-conscious, but get Mendes in a room with quick-witted actors and the crosscurrents are dizzying.
I also like this line in Owen Gleiberman's EW review:
The best thing about Revolutionary Road, a cool-blooded and disquieting adaptation of Richard Yates' 1961 novel about a powerfully unhappy Connecticut couple, is that it doesn't end with that rote vision of bourgeois anomie. It only begins there.
Other Rev Road supporters include the LAT's Ken Turan, Newsweek's David Ansen, and the Village Voice's Scott Foundas, who damns it with faint praise:
Revolutionary Road isn't a great movie -- it lacks the full, soul-crushing force of the novel -- but what works in it works so well, and is so tricky to pull off, that you can't help but admire it.
The WSJ's Joe Morgenstern calls the movie "stifling, all right, and depressing in the bargain."
The New Yorker's David Denby echoes the opinion of his mag's literary editor Roger Angell, who refused to ever acquire a Richard Yates short story:
There's a sourness, a relentlessness about the movie which borders on misanthropy. In both the social and the personal scenes, the conversational tone veers between idiotic pleasantries and fathomless bile, with nothing in between.
A movie like Rev Road may need more enthusiastic support than this. Rev Road is shaping up as more admired than beloved. At the Academy screening this weekend--the year's last--not many voters showed up, although it did get applause. (Many folks are away and will watch it on DVD.) Among those I've talked to who have seen the film, some say it's a tough slog. The Golden Globes helped Winslet and DiCaprio, but the critics groups did not; SAG went for Winslet only; they did not nominate Revolutionary Road for ensemble cast.
Winslet could win--it's her year (thanks to the double-whammy of Road and The Reader) and her competition is weak. (The indie gals may be deemed lucky to be nominated and many do not consider Oscar-winners Cate Blanchett or Streep's performances to be their best.)
Clint Eastwood could steal DiCaprio's best actor slot. And Michael Shannon, despite not getting the SAG love, should get a supporting actor nom.
Will the writers go for Justin Haythe? Will the directors anoint Sam Mendes? Mendes was a new kid on the block with American Beauty. Now he's a mix of outsider/insider--he's a lauded, respected British theater director, but many people, like Edelstein, consider him to be great with actors, but more theatrical than cinematic. I thought he did a great job with this movie. But I'm willing to suffer more than most. The upcoming WGA and DGA noms will be instructive here.
Subscribe to this blog's feed
Honestly, it hasn't gained traction for one very simple reason: It's not very good.
I saw it without reading the book, so I had no baggage. It wasn't the least bit interesting, fresh or vital. Perhaps in 1961 this might've been profound, but not now. For this movie to have worked it needed to find a modern corollary. Otherwise, why should I ever care about a good-looking couple that's constantly arguing? So what? Perhaps, it could've functioned better if it'd used a narrator in the vein of Little Children, which would create observational distance between the audience and the characters.
Furthermore, Kate Winslet is the most overrated actress working today. She is boring to watch and incapable of the least bit of characterization or subtlety -- she's constantly telegraphing her emotions across her face. Which leads to the next problem the movie has --
It's utterly shallow. There isn't a single complex moment in the entire picture. Not a single moment layered with subtext. Not a single moment where people are deceiving one another in a manner that isn't completely surface-oriented -- all of the arguments are based around outright rage being expressed. Neither character is the least bit interesting. (There goes the 'interesting' word again.)
I saw it opening day. I knew it was instantly DOA. No applause.
Posted by: Mr. Milich | December 30, 2008 at 02:30 PM
If Eastwood's hammy, Dirty-Harry-inspired garbage nabs a nomination over DiCaprio's most vivid and emotionally resonating performance, it'll be a debacle.
Oh, who am I kidding? The academy are Clint's lapdogs, even if he grunts, spits, and snorts his way through utter dross.
Posted by: Aden | December 30, 2008 at 03:37 PM
Aden said "If Eastwood's hammy, Dirty-Harry-inspired garbage nabs a nomination over DiCaprio's most vivid and emotionally resonating performance, it'll be a debacle"
Ditto :)
Posted by: perceptions | December 30, 2008 at 05:02 PM
Frost/Nixon for Best Picture? I think it's really only going to snag acting noms and maybe one for either screenplay or director.
The other film that is surprisingly absent from your list is "The Wrestler". It will definitely getting two acting noms and SHOULD get recognized for screenplay, director and best picture.
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" underwhelms on the whole. Will get a few noms, but it's really nothing to write home about.
When all is said and done, i think the top awards contenders come down to:
1. Slumdog
2. Milk
3. Doubt
4. The Wrestler
5. Dark Knight
'nuff said.
Posted by: Michael | December 30, 2008 at 05:12 PM
I have to admit that Revolutionary Road was one major disappointment for me. Glum, dour, downbeat and ultimately pointless. The main characters were tedious, totally unsympathetic and annoying. The basic point of the film is that life is miserable, so why bother? Only Michael Shannon, the only person with a real shot at an Oscar nomination, bought any life to the film.
Benjamin Button was also, I thought, a boring, long winded, self centered movie. Not nearly as profound ot important as it clearly thinks it is. What the message? Life is full of experiences and then you die. wow...that's deep.
Posted by: Sergio | December 30, 2008 at 05:55 PM
Anne
I forgot to mention earlier
Denby selected "RR" as one of his Top Ten Films of 2008, yet one would never know it based on how you chose to reference Denby
Much like with "RR's" Metacritic score versus "Button". Might you consider that the guilds will also support "RR"'s musical score, art direction, costumes ??
I ,also, find it interesting that you feel that the Academy voters need "the critics and the press" to explain movies to them.
Lastly, unlike you, I don't find viewing a thought provoking film like "RR" anchored by masterful peformances as 'suffering'
Posted by: perceptions | December 30, 2008 at 06:03 PM
OMG!
Hey, let's make a movie set in the 1950's to criticize conformity and the American Dream! Nobody's ever used idealized suburban imagery to this creative end before! Certainly not Kubrick in Lolita! Or Lynch in Blue Velvet! Or American Beauty! Or Far From Heaven and just about every other movie Christine Vachon has ever produced!
Yawn.
Posted by: Mr. Milich | December 31, 2008 at 12:45 PM
This always seemed more like a film where the acting and the technicals would be considered. It seems far too bleak for a Best Picture nomination.
I wholeheartedly disagree with Mr. Milich. Winslet is one of our most vital actorss, precisely because she pushes herself into new areas and takes risks, work in films like Holy Smoke, Eternal Sunshine, The Reader have shown new dimension to her range and capabilities as an actress.
I don't say she's the most naturally talented of her generation, but she makes some of the best choices artistically (although not commercially), and 5 Oscar nominations (and surely at least one to follow this year) suggest that she is greatly admired and respected by her peers and within Hollywood.
Posted by: Rob | January 01, 2009 at 03:32 PM
Good grief, when in the hell did people stop appreciating books, movies or theater that reflected the worst sides of human nature? Shakespeare, anyone? We've all been there, you know. It's like death. No one wants to acknowledge it, but there it is, waiting for you in the wings. This is the age of avoidance, for sure. No wonder we're in one of the worst periods of the country's history. It's what we avoid acknowleging that comes back to haunt us. I don't buy the Christmas angle because I think this has just come to be our standard behavior and it's costing us dearly. We don't like being confronted with the unpleasant unless it's packaged as a violent fantasy with jokers and superheroes, certainly not anything we might identify in our own lives.
Posted by: sheila king | January 02, 2009 at 06:49 AM
this post of Shiela King is the only sensible message in here
Good grief, when in the hell did people stop appreciating books, movies or theater that reflected the worst sides of human nature? Shakespeare, anyone? We've all been there, you know. It's like death. No one wants to acknowledge it, but there it is, waiting for you in the wings. This is the age of avoidance, for sure. No wonder we're in one of the worst periods of the country's history. It's what we avoid acknowleging that comes back to haunt us. I don't buy the Christmas angle because I think this has just come to be our standard behavior and it's costing us dearly. We don't like being confronted with the unpleasant unless it's packaged as a violent fantasy with jokers and superheroes, certainly not anything we might identify in our own lives.
Posted by: blizzards14 | January 02, 2009 at 10:53 AM
Loved Revolutionary Road. A great script and movie about being human - Just being human.
This is an inteligent movie an probably not for everybody and in the same time - it should be..
read more at www.revolutionaryroad.com
Posted by: Anderson | January 04, 2009 at 10:49 PM
I totally agree with Anderson. It's really not a pop-corn film for every one. it makes you think and analyse the deeds and thoughts of the characters long after the final scenes.it's about what a person wants in his life, his having guts to realise it in reality in proper time.because if you postpone your dream now, it can easily haunt you years after and evoke the feeling of deep regret and impossibility to change the situation, to fill in the emptyness you feel inside. It's about the importance to speak with each other, to see the needs of the person you leave with. I liked it and believed Kate and Leo. Real masters!
Posted by: Alexandra | February 03, 2009 at 05:20 AM