The Atrocity of Perfection

Review of Revolutionary Road

This, I feel, is an exceptional film. A willingness to be so unabashedly honest is quite rare in our society; and ironically this film makes that point through the actions of its characters, as well as through the response of the audience. The characters dare to vocalize shocking thoughts – shocking in their nature and even more shocking in their truth. The admissions of these truths are freeing and yet simultaneously arresting, because they undermine one’s entire life and its purpose.

The Wheelers, Frank and April, met in their youth in a nightclub, falling in love with one another and the idea that they were destined for a fantastic life, above the hopeless emptiness of American capitalism. The two married, but as time passed life presented situations in which succumbing to the mundane existence seemed to prove necessary. The introduction of children forced the couple to put aside their notions of a carefree existence in exchange for the security and responsibility required to raise a family. Consequently, Frank renounces his dream of moving to Paris to enjoy “feeling alive” devoid of the competitive pressures of capitalism, to discover his true essence in exchange for a desk job with a computer sales company. Similarly, April relinquishes her dream of becoming an actress to become a homemaker to Frank and their two children. Frank’s unhappiness with his job, which he finds purposeless and unfulfilling, affects him so substantially, that it affects his overall happiness with his life and his marriage. April’s unhappiness with the monotony of her life causes her to begin placing the entire stock of her happiness into her romantic life with Frank. As a result, she finds the solution to her unhappiness, to be Frank’s discovery of his own happiness.

This truth is evidenced by April’s idea to move to Paris, a dream of Frank’s, not hers. April plans to spend her time supporting the family while Frank is allowed the time to discover his own dreams. April makes no mention of conquering her own dreams to become an actress, but merely securing the happiness of her husband and in turn herself. Frank however believes that he can find that happiness in America, once he receives news of a promotion at his current job. Suddenly, he seems to be finding his place without her and thus seals the coffin of April’s dreams of their happiness together. Leonardo DiCaprio beautifully illustrates Frank's conflicting emotions between what is perceived as sensible and the honesty April demands from him. He abandons their plan/collective dream to travel to a place where they live, for the sureness of a plan where he feels he can manage to accept his life and attempt give that same feeling to April with the increased niceties that more money would provide.

Kate Winslet’s supreme acting illustrates April as a bipolar character often in the film. One moment she is enraged with the state of her life, and yet in a flash she is back to the niceties of pretense. She suddenly resumes the role of a perfect housewife, content with her existence. This bipolar quality is quite telling concerning the mental struggle required to go on with the act. For April, to continue in this life is to pretend, which is to fight herself. There is a fight between who she is and who she is forcing herself to be, a war which the real April is losing. In this war, the passing of time in the pretense is the continual death of herself.

The war within April makes her bipolar and thus seemingly crazy. In her “crazy” moments, she says things which are perceived by her husband and the audience as unspeakable. Her harsh honesty confesses the conception of their daughter as accidental, and her current pregnancy as a current blockade for their happiness. The shock at her willingness to speak the unspeakable causes Frank to suggest that April seek psychological help. April gropes at the truth in order to fix her reality, but her admission of these ugly truths are simply uncustomary and thus perceived as insane when juxtaposed against the rest of society. April’s inability to cope with the hopeless emptiness in a more concealed manner results in her “craziness”.
Mendes extends this point with supporting characters, Milly and Shep Campbell and Mrs. Helen Givings and her family. Once Milly and Shep hear of the Wheelers’ plan to move to Paris, Milly has a clear sense of longing for a similar change in her life. She wonders if it is sanity or a lack of strength that has held her back from insisting such change. When Shep refutes the idea as immature and irresponsible, Milly is relieved to find that her willingness to continue the charade of her life is not meaningless or weak, merely right and responsible. She cannot completely shake the floodgate of emotions that the Wheelers open however and succumbs to tears of regretful complacency and yet grateful comfort in the fact that she will not have to strengthen herself enough to oppose the customs of society. Milly is elated when Frank and April announce their pregnancy’s foiling of their plan of relocate. She is in a way, happy that she will not suffer alone, but have company with which to continue the charade and calm her owns fears of inadequacy. Meanwhile Shep is in love with April; her obvious fire and passion for life renders her irresistible. Once Shep and April commit adultery with one another, Shep admits his love for April, as he finally feels “alive” again, while April is simply indifferent to his display of emotion. Inside, April has died right along with her dreams for a return to happiness.

Additionally Mrs. Helen Givings completely submits to societal norms, judging others by appearances alone, which in a society such as this, are almost always misleading. The Wheelers appear stable and thus Mrs. Givings finds them charming, initially. Her son, John, however is vocal about the instability that he feels in this society and thus placed in an insane asylum for having difficulty with “getting bogged down with life.” Ironically, John is the only character who seems to honestly connect with feeling of hopeless emptiness, because he is the only character unashamed of screaming the truth, even when it’s unattractive. Instead of acknowledging these truths, Mrs. Givings prefers refocusing her attention to any possible distraction from the ugly. She won’t speak directly about what she perceives to be her son’s mental illness or listen as he rants on, but struggles to change the subject or stare out the window at the beautiful weather. In the film’s finale, when Mrs. Givings drones on about the pleasantries of a new family on Revolutionary Road, her husband turns down his hearing aid, silencing the pointless noise of pretense.

In his final appearance, Mrs. Giving’s son comments that he feels sorry for April’s unborn child. To be a child of a mother who is dead on the inside is a horrid existence. Furthermore, the child’s emergence into a society that would rather pretend that they are happy, hiding behind the veil of niceties is terrifying. That is, with the birth of the child is an assurance of the reproduction of misery, because there will be no one teaching and instilling the value and importance of true happiness. The child will grow to believe that pretending happiness is the only viable solution for true unhappiness. By losing the war with society, April kills herself and her child before he or she is even born. In the end, both die a horrid death through the death of April, an ironic comment on the inevitable. While awaiting an absolution regarding the atrocity of April’s self-induced abortion, Frank comments that “She did it to herself.” Sadly, Frank is right on both levels; April gave herself the abortion which results in her literal death, but she also gives in to the forceful expectations of society, killing the April inside as well. This film is without a doubt dark and yet the frequency with which the audience describes the film as such is an interesting point to note. Our society tends to shy away from the dark, no matter how honest, as it bogs down the ability to continue with the pretense of perfect, endless light.

Review of Children of Men (2006)

Finding the Balance, Children of Men

Quite telling is the film’s premise, which deems it inconceivable that this black woman could miraculously defy nature, so to speak, as evidence of hope and savior for humanity. But hope for humanity from any source regardless the packaging, is just that, the gift of hope. Hope can fuel hearts to revolution, so it seems we must let go of preconceptions of what or who should inspire hope and accept the gift, no matter the sender. In a world riddled with ruthless competition, we struggle to ascertain the balance of self-preservation and the preservation of humanity. In the case of the War in Iraq (referenced by the movie through a poster), or the murder of Baby Diego there was a terrible breakdown in this balance and we have tragic results. Suddenly we arrive to a world where the “top,” evidenced by wealth, is devoid of “real politics,” forgetting their need. In time they learn to just not think about the atrocities that create the need for “real politics.”

Just as Theo will eventually be desensitized to the frequency which caused the ringing in his ears during the explosion, people desensitize themselves to others and “real politics” dissolve. The progression of this human extinction is displayed through art; as we first see The Statue of David, classic sculpture meant to convey man at his absolute best, followed by, Picasso’s Guernica, a cubist painting meant to convey the chaos and destruction of war, man at his worst. This art is in the home of a man who is “at the top” despite the state of the world, because he doesn’t think about the atrocities occurring around his glass bubble of self perseveration…but the top of what? A society failing morally as well as politically.

Instead of the voices of children, the world is filled with the sounds of animals; they are the new children of men. Animals are present in so many scenes of this film drawing such attention to the abnormality of that continual presence. The children of men become animals because that’s all that man has left to latch on to as smaller images of themselves, as animal behavior is all that man seems able to reproduce. The society is not reproducing but destroying humanity. Thus, the natural, in this case Kee, who is able to reproduce naturally, begin to feel like the “freaks.” She is in turn forced to suffer through the pain of the most natural process in silence. Kee goes through labor during her terrified flight for the Human Project, struggling to conceal the pain of childbirth; the weight of the hope for humanity, alone.

Suddenly, it becomes understandable that home becomes a battleground riddled with destruction and violence, because isn’t war a more targeted, purposed destruction of man? For me, the lack of willingness to accept the packaging of Kee’s gift to humanity is reminiscent of the source of many citizens’ refusal to accept Obama as the packaging of a viable president of the United States. Is it presumptuous to say Obama has the power to save humanity? Quite possibly, but mankind’s destruction begins with small actions of torpidity in which people give up on “real politics”, turning a moral and political eye of myopia to the injustices of the world. Hope in the eventual emergence from such a state begins that process. Though Kee fears the public’s reaction, faith in humanity is grounded in something real. Theo’s death, which allows for Kee’s life and the actual existence of the Human Project evidence the validity of that faith; validity in the belief that there exists for some the natural inclination to understand what is best for the human race and give that truth the higher precedence. That same glimmer of hope that is the only thing left on which to stand and push for better, begins with the faith in what can be from the glimpse of what already is…more or less that “yes we can.” In spite of talk of cliché, Obama’s often scorned “rhetoric” seems the true beginning of changing direction and inspiring true revolution of man’s sensibility toward one another. Only then can the results truly change for the better - the balance of self as well as humanitarian preservation.