Revolutionary Road

Dreamers are like hydrogen filled balloons hovering over reality, pulling at the ropes that keep them moored to the humdrum of everyday life. Over time the hydrogen seeps out and they slowly pancake to the ground dejected and deflated. But in some cases they explode in flames like the Hindenburg, “ Oh, the humanity!“ That was the case in this film. Not a bad film…but not a good one either. The high point was the heated argument between Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. It was reminiscent of that great argument between Richard Burton and Elisabeth Taylor in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” (1966), a real earthquake of an argument. The words of Longshoreman philosopher Eric Hoffer sum up this film nicely, “To believe that if we could but have this or that we would be happy is to suppress the realization that the cause of our unhappiness is in our inadequate and blemished selves. Excessive desire is thus a means of suppressing our sense of worthlessness.”