Revolutionary Road (2008)

Jack can attest to the fact that I predicted an art direction nomination for this before I left for the inauguration (yes, I do other things besides watch movies!). The nominations are out now and this has three: Art Direction, Costume Design, and Supporting Actor for Michael Shannon, who was excellent as the mad John Givings. Before it came out, someone said, "Kate and Leonardo: together again, without all that ice." Kathy Bates was in Titanic as well, and she is fun here as John's mother Helen Givings, with her "yoo-hoo" call to announce her arrival at the back door. 

But there is not much fun in this movie. The characters are miserable for the most part. Opinions have been wildly varied on this. Kate Winslet won a Golden Globe for her April Wheeler, but more than one reviewer said she was horribly miscast. David Denby (whose reviews in the New Yorker always contain spoilers) said this movie may suffer "from the illusion that pain and art are the same thing." He liked DiCaprio's Frank Wheeler even less than he liked Winslet in this. It was pretty depressing but worth seeing. 

The prolific composer Thomas Newman got nominated for WALL-E and not for this nor Towelhead. I plan to listen to all the soundtracks many more times before the awards. A "Who's that guy?" character was the rubber-faced Dylan Baker as Jack Ordway, one of Frank's colleagues at work. Baker has done lots of good work, notably a sick and twisted Bill Maplewood in Todd Solondz' sick and twisted Happiness (1998), in NBC's brilliant-but-cancelled Book of Daniel, and in the campy Billy Connolly-starring Fido (2006). 

The one to watch was young Zoe Kazan as THE secretary. She is granddaughter of the late director Elia Kazan (A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), On the Waterfront (1954), Splendor in the Grass (1961), and many more), and daughter of writers Robin Swicord (screenplays for The Jane Austen Book Club (2007), Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), and Practical Magic (1998), as well as the screen story for this year's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and Nicholas Kazan (Frances (1982), At Close Range (1986), Reversal of Fortune (1990), as well as collaborating with Swicord on Matilda (1996)).