Revolutionary Road (2008)

Set in the 1950s, a young married couple (Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet) move to the Connecticut suburbs after the birth of their two children. But their marriage begins to deteriorate when the wife wants to abandon suburbia and pursue the dreams of their youth while the husband has been seduced by the comfort and safety of the bourgeois lifestyle. Based on the acclaimed novel by Richard Yates and directed by Sam Mendes (SKYFALL). A blistering examination of how stifling and repressive the conformity of the 1950s could be and often was. Published in 1961, Yates' book immediately received movie interest but it was a tough nut to crack in adapting for the screen and took some 45 years before it reached the screen. Winslet won the 2008 best actress Oscar for THE READER, right actress, wrong performance. As good as she was in THE READER, she does amazing work here. Ready to jump out of her skin, Winslet gives us a sense of how frustrating the 50s were to women trying to break from the conventions of a provincial existence. With Kathy Bates, Michael Shannon, Kathryn Hahn, Dave Harbour, Zoe Kazan and Jay O. Sanders.