Last night I unintentionally managed to watch two Sam Mendes films in a row. Of course one of them being American Beauty. I'm not going to go into detail over this film because I'm guessing you've already viewed it and if you haven't I wouldn't admit it. After this we watched the special features ( this is a given with me) and discovered that Sam Mendes was a director of plays before going into film. This is the type of thing is what I hope to get out of watching the special features. After this new factoid, my friends and I made our way to my apartment to watch Revolutionary Road, which was surprisingly in a stash of my roommates pirated DVD's.

I was very amped to view the film as I am a broke student and could not chose between Revolutionary Road and Milk to shell out ten dollars for. Watching gay men picket and make-out for two and half hours appealed to me more. So while the credits began to roll and the opening sequence ended I had this feeling the movie could only get better, but it didn't . *WARNING:SPOILER* First off, I found myself asking where the hell the kids were the entire film. There is all this talk about the kids being the main issue for not moving and yet they seemed to never be around. My friend pointed out that it was set in the 50's when it was not proper to argue in front of the children, but I dismissed that answer because any director would have chose emotion and story over time period accuracy.

My main reasoning for disliking the film is the horrific ending. This was the main topic of discussion. When Kate Winslet dies, Sam Mendes tries to be as subtle as possible for the reveal of her death but fails miserably. It was so rushed I found myself asking if it ever even happened while laughing at how melodramatic the whole reveal was. And I understand what he was trying to tell with the old couple in the end, but ending on characters we don't really care for to create an emotional ending, failed miserably. If I was the editor I would have ended the film with Leo sitting on the bench or maybe even her death. Now, my main frustration was if Kate Winslet's character committing suicide or was she trying to pursue her dreams? This I do not know. If any one thinks they know, I'm open for thoughts. All-and-all my expectations failed and Sam Mendes should reevaluate that film is a much different medium than stage.