Revolutionary Road (Sam Mendes, 2008)

Di Caprio and Winslet are finally reunited in a '50s suburban Americana take on Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage, based on Richard Yates's much-vaunted novel. The theme is set in the first few minutes, as they tear into each other after a failed theatrical performance on her part. This will be angst; Mendes has previous in the pain of disenchantment, from American Beauty onwards.
There are grating elements; at times we're in hysterically Sirkian melodrama, and Winslet can be painfully mannered in her stridency. But Di Caprio is increasingly getting to the kind of pained understatement that betrays his still boyishly squidgy face, Roger Deakins's photography is as sumptuous as ever, and in the end a succession of scenes that swing credibly from hope to utter disintegration to resignation linger beautifully. It's a superior example of domestic pulp, and certainly worth a look. Don't go expecting the adolescent schmaltz of Titanic, in other words.

7/10