'Revolutionary Road' is one of the best American films to be turned out in 2008. Starring Titanic's romantic duo, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio portray a 1950s marriage, as the film dissects and captures the timeless torment of an unhappy marriage. It reveals only too well, the many ways spouses who know each other's Achilles heel lies, go straight for the jugular, with even ordinary arguments veering out of control.

Based on Richard Yates' novel, the film details marriage pressures of the mid-1950s, when men, in order to support themselves and their family, faced a life sentence of unrewarding work. As for the women, it seemed the door slammed shut on a life of fulfillment, both bidding good-bye to dreams of life enrichment.

Impeccably shot, the film has unforgettable shots of men in hats and gray flannel disembark from the morning train at Grand Central Station, hurrying to some deathly boring mill or office job.

The script manages to convey brilliantly that a glorious courtship does more often than not ends in a miserable marriage. Frank Wheeler (DiCaprio) and April (Winslet) meet and end up being captivated with each other. He talks of his secret desire to be a big shot, while she dreams of a life that is uniquely fulfilling, and talking of their dreams they both seem to share the same ambition i. e. each wants to be distinctive.

They marry on the premise they share the same ambitions, but nothing is further from the truth. Frank, a closet conformist, wants a stable home, society's approval and the envy of his peers. April, a failed actress without any society or peers, shunning the role of a caring home-maker, desires a uniquely fulfilling life. , draws up a scheme to sell their house and move the whole family to Paris .

In Paris , they will throw off the shackles of convention and live a live of adventure. Visiting their friends ( David Harbour and Kathryn Hahn) later that night, they almost force them to confront their own life of frustration and despair. But, reality hits home and the Wheelers sink back into their painful delusion.

' Revolutionary Road ' shows Frank having a desultory affair with one of the girls from his office's steno-pool, using extra-marital sex as an expression of deep despair. DiCaprio gives a splendid performance, capitalizing on all his strong and weak points. He uses his smile, slickly engaging personality to great advantage, even uses his superficial, lightweightness well.

Winslet, one of the most ravishing actresses, plays her part of a bitter woman convincingly and gives her character's mood swings and ferocious anger a formidable dimension. She captures all of April's big dreams and intense frustration, her subdued yet ever-alert look at DiCaprio, causing him to either mostly wilt or sometimes preen, effectively conveys she is searching for signs of the man she thought she was marrying. Winslet shows us the portrait of a brilliant woman trapped.

She lets a silent generation speak up, 80-year old women, who open up and reveal how films, TV, advertisements of their times, told them a happy life was one of domestic servitude. They found it wasn't true, and April Wheeler in ' Revolutionary Road ' reveals they weren't the only ones. As such, the film is for these women, it is a tribute to them!

If, you are one of those people, who are going to see ' Revolutionary Road ', thinking that you will relive Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet's great romance in the 'Titanic', prepare for disappointment. They star pair have not chosen a film that will hearts aflutter, as their Titanic shipboard romance did. Their first reunion vehicle is a film closer to an Ingmar Bergman psycho-drama than a romance to swoon over. It is an emotionally searing look at the dissolution of a 1950s marriage, a well-acted domestic cataclysm that is bound to impress some young women, who saw 'Titanic' 11-years ago, are all grown-up now and probably divorced to boot,

Based on Yates' 1961 book, ' Revolutionary Road ' confronts America 's comfortable postwar conformity, just as 'American Beauty' did. It is film director, Sam Mendes' updated take on the same subject. A well thrashed out theme, ' Revolutionary Road ' like most films adapted from great novels, fails to transfer the book's descriptive pages on screen. And while, ' Revolutionary Road ' is not as good as 'American Beauty', the funny part is, the latter film was unable to depict marital discord with the bruising severity ' Revolutionary Road ' manages to do.

Winslet and DiCaprio force us to recognize and wince at the Wheeler's conflict. Though the heat and passion of Richard Yates' novel about a disintegrating marriage doesn't make it on screen, the 'Titanic' pair are just as good, if not better.

A great film, Winslet and DiCaprio give splendid performances. Finally, this film has to be seen more than once to be fully appreciated. Watch it once through her eyes, then go and watch it again through his eyes. You have to catch both sides of the story and that means watching it through only one pair of eyes at a time!