Month: April 2009

Return to adolescence.  Welcome to High School Musical 4, without the music and dance.

How long ago has it been since your high school days?

Not for Mike O’Donnell played by Matthew Perry of the TV sitcom F.R.I.E.N.D.S fame.  In a mysterious twist of fate, Mike returns to his younger self, well 17 to be exact played by teenage heartthrob Zac Efron.

Mike is a sore and bitter 30 something man who had a potential career as a basketball player.  But he threw that away when at 17 instaed of playing an important basketball game, he ran off to be with his pregnant girlfriend, Scarlett.  This left him disgruntled and embittered which eventually led to a breakdown in the couple’s marriage.  Mike doesn’t score well with his children either. His teenage son and daughter can’t be bothered with him and do not communicate with him.  To complete his misery, he has been passed over for a promotion at work.

With the help and support of his high school buddy Ned Gold, Mike, poses as Ned’s son and returns to high school for another shot at his life – to make up for his regret of not making it for the life he could have accomplished.

Mike gets to be close to his son, Alex who is bullied in school by the school’s star athlete, Stan.  He finds out that his daughter Maggie is dating Stan and wants to move away with him.  In the process, he mentors his Alex in basketball, and does all he can to get Stan to stay away from Maggie, giving Maggie the impression that he is interested in her.  While at the same time, he re-romances an unsuspecting Scarlett and rediscovers his love for her.

17 Again is no doubt Efron’s star vehicle, and there is nothing not to like about him in his role as Mike.  Truth is: this is not much of an acting stretch for Efron, and rather an extension of his Troy persona from the highly successful and popular High School Musical franchise.  He dances, he plays basketball, and he talks about sexual abstinence.  Efron needs to step out from such familiar roles or risk being typecast in his acting career.

I find 17 Again funny and entertaining without the need to feel seriously or emotionally burdened.  One of the moments I found funny was Maggie coming onto Mike when they were together.  When Mike failed to respond to Maggie’s advances, in a sly dig at Efron and the metro-sexual, Maggie asks Mike if he is sexually confused and mentions the well-coiffed hair, the blonde highlights in his hair and the tight jeans he wears.

Overall, 17 Again makes a good escape from the monotony and pressure of everyday life.  It allows us to fantasise and reminisce our teenage school days and the charming presence of Efron does help.

From a luxury cruise-liner to suburbia America, Jack and Rose reunite.

Don’t mistake Revolutionary Road for a story about the civil rights movement or war.  It is the name of a fictitious street where Frank and April Wheeler live.  Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet reteam as the protagonists a decade after their outing of Titanic proportions in this 1950s American suburban piece.

The Wheelers are held up as a model couple.  They have two children and a nice house.  Frank has a stable job and April is a dutiful housewife.  What would be more perfect?

Yet Frank hates his desk job.  The long commute to and from home to work on the train is a signal of his mundane working life.  April, an unsuccessful actress, is faring no better herself.  She is feeling trapped and restless with what she thinks is a mediocre life.

April suggests to Frank that they move to Paris in order “to live”, an excuse their ordinary and traditional lifestyle of 1950s suburbia.   Frank although initially hesitant, buys into April’s idea.  But when Frank receives an unexpected promotion and pay rise, he starts to have second doubts about the move.  When April gets pregnant, Frank finds the excuse to pull the plug on their plans and thus sets the couple on a collision course for tragedy.

I personally enjoy dramas that explore the themes of drudgery, conformity and mundane existence of suburban life and Revolutionary Road lives up to my expectations as a movie.  I won’t be able to comment on whether the movie does justice to the characters and the book as I have not read the novel by Richard Yates of which the movie is adapted from.  But the movie packs a strong, emotional and bitter after punch for me.

The success rests largely on the calibre of its players.  Director Sam Mendes and Winslet’s husband treads on familiar ground on the breakdown of suburban life after the Academy Award winning American Beauty.  Mendes recreates the 1950s mood with nostalgia and coaxes fiery performances out of DiCaprio and Winslet.

But the gems of the show are no doubt DiCaprio and Winslet.  Their chemistry on-screen is evident from the tender scenes they share to their explosive and vicious outbursts and tirades they level at each other.  DiCaprio imbues a boyish charm to his Frank as the awkward and reluctant dutiful husband, a boy never quite mature enough into a man besides Winslet’s domineering April. Frank is at ease charming a naïve employee into having an affair with him, but could never quite sensitive enough to cajole his wife after her failed acting performance.

Winslet flexes her dramatic chops in the role of April and chews away the screen.  She does everything from lovey-dovey to hysterical to calm and steely.  She is believable as the resentful and disillusioned housewife.

Michael Shannon steals the few minutes of screen time in a supporting role as a mentally disturbed son of a nosy neighbour who shoots his mouth and thoughts without restraint at the Wheelers.  Shannon’s character John is the only one who dares to articulate the truth about the Wheelers.  His character generates the much needed laughter from the audience.

I can always link suburbia dramas back to our own existence here in Singapore even for a set in 1950s piece like Revolutionary Road.  Aren’t many of us just like Frank, struggling to make a living to provide for our home and family though at times we hate our jobs behind a desk?  Yet the desire to be responsible and pragmatic stops us from seeking change.

Although April doesn’t apply to modern working women in Singapore, but aren’t some of us frustrated at the insensitivity and weakness of our husband to our needs?  Aren’t some of us at times disillusioned by the way that the marriage didn’t turn out the way we expect it to be?

Revolutionary Road depicts the frustration of the ordinary you and me in the heartlands of Singapore.  We long for change but are too afraid to seek it.  Just as April said: “Our whole existence here is based on this great premise that we’re special.  That we’re superior to the whole thing.  But we’re not.”

Like April and Frank, we might have done so and making people believe we are special but when in fact we are not, and like April find it hard to accept.

Overall, Revolutionary Road is an intense, riveting and gripping drama that packs a powerful insight into our own lives.