Revolutionary Road (2008) Film Review - Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio

Plot Summary - Dark and complex drama set in the mid-1950s, following a couple (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet) and their brittle personal relationship. Everyone considers Frank and April Wheeler a "special couple" - Frank and April think so too! But they feel like their life is in a rut, that they've bought into what everyone is "supposed" to do, and that is not what makes them happy - - they have a nice suburban Connecticut house, two kids, good job for dad in the city where he sits in a cubicle all day at a job he hates, takes martini lunches with co-workers, and seduces a cute young secretary with martinis, then sleeps with her - all a day's work. April comes up with an idea to spark some life into their marriage - have hubby Frank quit his job and the family move to Paris, where April plans to take a secretarial job while Frank "finds himself" - a novel concept for fifties America. The plan in the works, Frank plans to quit his job - but an unforeseen promotion and unexpected pregnancy may stand in the way of their goal.

Review - This is a great film - dark, yes, but SO well done - the acting, the 50s setting perfectly duplicated, the story so absorbing. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet give absolutely outstanding performances in this film. Liked the scene early in the film where Leonardo's character heads via train into the city - all men in hats and lots of vintage cars - cool. Boy there was a lot of smoking and martini drinking in this, by the way - liked the "Vito's Log Cabin" nightclub they went to in one scene! A superbly done film - loved the music score in this too, done by one of my most favorites - Thomas Newman, which matched this film to a tea! One of the best films from 2008, I thought. Rating - 10/10 stars

The Reader (2008) Film Review - Kate Winslet

Plot Summary - Well done drama about a teenager who has an affair with an older woman with a dark secret and the life-long effects this affair has the man's psyche. In 1958 Germany, fifteen-year old Michael (David Kross) is ill on the streets where he is helped by a thirty-something woman named Hanna (Kate Winslet). Struck by her, he recovers and seeks her out - and so begins an affair despite their twenty-year age difference and seemingly different social and educational levels. Rushing to see her after school, their affair is driven not just by sex and baths but by her desire to be read to by him - all the classic novels. One day she has disappeared and he doesn't see her again - until SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT: forward to 1966 where Michael is a young law student who is taking a special seminar and attends a trial in which - surprise - Hanna, once an SS guard during the Holocaust, is being prosecuted for war crimes!

Review - I found this film an intriguing watch, quite romantic and passionate in the first half, and leading into the Holocaust part of the story which comes as somewhat of a surprise (at least if you know nothing of the film's plot, which is what I try to do by keeping away from film reviews and clips until after I've seen the movie). I did question a couple of things that these characters do in this film (SPOILER SPOILER: 1. why he doesn't speak up about her illiteracy during the trial, 2. why she "gives up" on herself at the end of the film), which came across as unrealistic to me. But, in any case, I did really enjoy this and found it to be an excellent and memorable film. Kate Winslet is great, as usual, as is Ralph Fiennes who appears as the grown-up man version of Michael - but I must say, actor David Kross, who plays young Michael is fantastic in this, why no Oscar nod?! Rating - 10/10 stars