MovieChat Forums > Revolutionary Road (2009) Discussion > I guess it wasn't a triumph or anything....

I guess it wasn't a triumph or anything...Spoiler!

posted 10 years ago by Gabe1972
9 replies | jump to latest

I don't know about what you guys think, and I admit that April had an annoying quirk here and there, and she cheated too, but I found Frank to be a complete jerk. The way he treated her was awful.

"Well, I guess it wasn't a triumph or anything, was it?" That was his very first "present day" line to her in the film, right after the play. Then, on the way home, he's needling her while trying to act as if he is doing it to comfort her. She then asks him to just drop it, and what does he do? He gets even worse.

With regard to them moving to Paris...I don't think that Frank, deep down, really had any intention of moving after all was said and done. If the job offer hadn't come up, I believe he still would have found some excuse to call off the move.

It was the needling from him that irked me the most. The constant need to have the last word. When she asks him to not say another word about something, he then tells her to not worry about it, because it doesn't matter anyway. Sheesh Frank, just shut up...get it?

I know there is a lot more to this film and their relationship than the couple of things I have talked about, but I would no doubt say that if you had to pick one to blame more than the other for the crumbling of their marriage, I would definitely say it's him. Again, I know she does have her own problems, but he was just a jerk. Not a misogynist, but I think he definitely felt his well being was more important than hers.

It wasn't until it was too late that he realized what he truly had and what he lost.

This is just my opinion, and I'm sure there are opinions that are the complete opposite of mine.

The plural of mouse is mice. The plural of goose is geese. Why is the plural of moose not meese?

[–] yesimgonnabeastar 10 years ago

I think that's a good analysis of Frank - he had no idea how to relate to April, partly because she was so nebulous about what she really wanted out of life and marriage until she got the idea to go to Paris and start over.

[–] objviewer 10 years ago

I agree with what you say about Frank. It's funny though, when I watch this movie again, after seeing it years ago, I find myself feeling more critical of April. She is so self-centered, she is blind to what Frank is really like and what he really wants. She mainly wants him to fulfill her fantasy of what she thinks he should be to make her life what she thinks it should be. Seems she can't take the responsibility to make her own life meaningful; to fight for her own meaning, not have it handed to her by a "man". Yeah, yeah, it was the 50's and women did not have a lot of options, but think the movie was portraying a deeper inadequacy in April. Her dependence on a fantasy about another person replacing what would be her own wrenching struggle for self-realization.

[–] mymoviemind 10 years ago

Dead on. Sad thing is, they were both so similar and both had no idea what they really wanted in life. They were actually poisonous to each other. The performances in this movie are so real they're painful to watch. Sad, but so well done.

[–] puplover 10 years ago

Objviewer- you are 100% correct. I don't see how people can think Frank is as plagued by problems as April. Frank TRIED, in his limited way to deal w/ a manic depressive, emotionally stunted wife. He was just out of his league.She needed serious therapy and medication. Seems that folks are either on Frank's side or April's. The OP is a man. And I am female and I just wanted to shake April. I felt so bad for Frank. He would have been ok w/ a "Millie" type.

[–] gsc1828 10 years ago

There is a scene in which April says she thought that through all the years of their marriage they shared a private secret, and that secret allowed them to live in the suburbs without really belonging to a culture which they explicitly rejected. When Frank says the dreams of moving to Paris were unrealistic and childish he was cutting the bond of trust she believed existed between them, and denied what he said earlier in the film when talking about Paris and the dreams of living an authentic existence ("People are alive there, they're not like here. All I know April is, I want to feel things, really feel them"). April does admit that a real promise was never made between them, and that perhaps she was projecting a side of him that never truly existed, which made her even more depressed.

She did not want Frank to give her meaning, but she wanted to look for meaning with him and she thought that it was a dream they had in common. As you stated, women did not have a wide range of professions or options available and after she had children she could not make the choice of leaving herself. It was up to him because he was a man and there is no way she could have provided for herself and her children ("You're the most beautiful and wonderful thing in the world (Frank), you're a man").

[–] maarten_vw 8 years ago

Exactly my feelings about cutting the bond of trust!

Then again, I suppose April was sort of trying to mould Frank into the perfect husband who perfectly understood her and was willing to fullfill her somewhat outlandish desires (for the time).
She tried to force him to help her live out her own dream. Perhaps that was a bit selfish too.
Then again, perhaps she really did believe that he was gonna find himself in Paris.

Perhaps in the 90ies she'd have seperated earlier and would just have off to Paris, by herself.

[–] KenyaOne 8 years ago

Thank you "gsc1828" and the OP, "gabe 1972." Otherwise I'd be horribly disappointed by the 99% of Posters herein who put all blame on April. Yeah, he was the picture of stability: hates his job until offered more money and appreciation; repeatedly has sex with (read: uses and abuses) an underling secretary who he knows she cares and he doesn't. April may have been depressed but that's not what defines her; many wives of that time (and maybe in denial about it today) were depressed. She's just not as capable of "compartmentalization," whereas Frank is an abject Narcissist. When he loses April in the end he may have realized too late what he lost but there is also the possibility that what he lost was also his "stature." This is epitomized in the "poor Frank" attitude of those around him for having had an "unstable" wife. -- However, a salient point that may have been overlooked by some of the audience is that all the other characters in this story were just as "damaged," just as "stuck" in their lives of "quiet desperation." - Has anything changed? Why are antidepressant medications more prescribed than any other drug?

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] archer6749 9 years ago

In the book it said that Frank was trying to think of something nice to say, but he knew when April was upset she could take any compliment and accuse it as being a lie. So after thinking of something nice he could say, he just decided not to beat around the bush with her and basically just go ahead and agree with what he already knew she was thinking. He did however say to her that she was great in the play when they were driving home so he kind of went in both directions.