Almost There: Kate Winslet in "Revolutionary Road"
Wednesday, January 8, 2020 at 8:00PM Here's Cláudio Alves with a new series on performances that got lots of precursor love but no Oscar nomination. Previously we discussed Emma Thompson in Saving Mr Banks...
January 11th, 2009 was Kate Winslet's night. After years of scoring endless nominations and very few victories, her effortful Oscar campaign was finally kicking into high gear. She had not one, but two triumphant victories on the Golden Globes' stage. In Best Supporting Actress, she won for her (leading) role inThe Reader and secured her frontrunner status. In Best Actress - Drama, she won for Revolutionary Road. After such a merry evening, many were expecting a double citation come Oscar morning. One thing was for sure – one way or the other, Kate Winslet would end the Awards Season with a little golden man in her hands.
Still, the campaign manipulations that worked hard to secure her two nominations failed at the last minute, when the Academy showed rare lucidity against the folly of category fraud...
Instead of two nominations, she got just one, in Best Actress. More surprisingly was that, of the two performances, the Oscars opted for the more sidelined and complicated one, snubbing the suburban melodrama instead. And so it was that the season's prophecy came true and Kate Winslet became an Oscar winner for her performance in The Reader. Even so, there's a matter that remains up for debate – did she win for the right movie?
Revolutionary Road is Sam Mendes' well-appointed and emotionally overripe adaptation of a Richard Yates novel about doomed matrimony in 1950s America. At the time of release, Winslet was still married to the director and her on-screen husband was a close friend behind the cameras. The production marked the second coming of Jack and Rose with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet once again playing a couple doomed by the specter of Death and societal oppression. That said, now they're called Frank and April Wheeler and it's not an iceberg that seals their fate.
You see, the Wheelers are a couple of ordinary people that desperately want to be extraordinary. To watch them grapple with the reality of their situation is to see two people frozen in horror, their dead-eyed expressions betraying the emptiness that hides beneath the veneer of domestic perfection. This Ken and Barbie of the Eisenhower Era are rotten and unmoored before the narrative even starts. What we see through the course of the movie is the carcass of their relationship swells with the gases of decomposition until it bleeds itself into the earth in final annihilation.
At some point, there's talk of a move to Paris and a new life, but this clumsy resurrection fails. When I was young, I thought the film was a tragedy because they nearly saved themselves with that trip. Nowadays, I realize the tragedy lives in the fact they were already lost to start with. Before, I saw feverish hope in Winslet's eyes when she proposed the idea of the voyage. Now I only recognize manic self-delusion.
Her character isn't a doomed lover, she's a bad actress caught in a bad show that refuses to close curtains even when nobody wants to watch it anymore. To share a life with someone else is to have a mirror facing you at all times, the eyes of your companion reflecting you in faithful perpetuity, a spectator that never leaves. However, to see ourselves can be a hateful experience. The Wheelers certainly hate it, their self-loathing quickly curdling into rage as soon as they catch a glimpse of the ugliness in their partner's visage.
April tries to fight it by performing counter-conformist individuality to her husband, her neighbors, to the eyes that stare at her in the mirror and beg her to be special. But she's not, neither of them is. They never were. At some point, for this actress of the kitchen proscenium, it becomes too irksome to keep the act up. The dialogues become strained and the gestures tired. When she explodes, it's like she's a bit player tied to a long-running stage show, trying on some bit of hysteria to see if she can wake herself up from a stupor of boredom, even if only for a single matinée.
Revolutionary Road has a blunt screenplay, full of simple dialogue that hits like a sledgehammer and clumsy observations that are nonetheless devastating. Winslet's performance takes her cues from the text rather than Mendes' stately direction. She's blunt and sharp, sometimes jumping off the cliff of naturalism to find something more excessive, more like that metaphorical sledgehammer. It's not pretty and, maybe, it isn't even good acting, but it works. The last half hour of Winslet's performance is a particularly dazzling spectacle of purified rage.
The housewife listens and listens, her broken dreams collapsing while her tense hand holds a smoking cigarette and her mouth refuses to let even a whisper slip through. Then, she laughs, like a jester making a joke out of their own doom. Then come the shouts, the anger finally bubbling over, no longer masked by the clown's painted smile or the stoic's inexpression. She screams her throat raw and then she runs, tries to escape though there's nowhere to go. She runs until she gives up and, for the very last time, we get to see as Winslet lets the light fade from her eyes. What's left is a hollow mechanism of suburban domesticity in self-destruction mode.
Do you think Kate Winslet won the Oscar for the right movie?
Reader Comments (46)
I've always thought that she should have won for REVOLUTIONARY ROADand not THE READER, which she should have been nominated in Supporting Actress for.
Thank you for this write up. Her performance in this film is masterful and definitely one of the top 5 of her career. I love how shocked she was when she won the second Golden Globe. It was amazing to watch.
Great piece. She 100% should've won for this role instead. The scene where she suggests the move to Paris is indeed heartbreaking and devastating. Cannot fathom how anyone who saw both movies picked The Reader.
(And curious how enough people picked The Reader and then proactively decided to shift it to lead. In my mind, it's still a borderline supporting performance.)
She won for the right performance, but Revolutionary Road was a better movie than The Reader overall.
She's damn good in this. First of Mendes' first four films not to be a great film. DiCaprio is a little stiff in this.
Great piece.
Yes, I’d say she definitely won for the right movie. If for no other reason than her long-awaited Oscar needed to be for a performance that featured her then trademark unabashed nudity (I kid, I kid). She's wonderful in both films but her Hanna Schmitz was far more complicated, memorable, and impressive an achievement.
We all wish she could have won for “Eternal Sunshine” but so few actors actually score little gold men for their top performance(s).
My take is that she won for the lesser movie, but the better performance.
Thanks for this memory. I want to watch REVOLUTIONARY ROAD again now (maybe after I watch the new Mendes this afternoon).
she should have won for this and not for the damn Reader
Let's all pretend she won for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and be happy with her having an Oscar!
Revolutionary Road was the better performance and film for Winslet that she should've won for. The Reader is a bit boring and very Oscar-baity which is why I would dislike Stephen Daldry a lot as I kind of liken him to the Oscar-bait version of Michael Bay.
She didn't! She should have won for "Eternal Sunshine..." hands down :)
One of my very favourite twists of nomination fate was Kate Winslet getting nominated lead for The Reader. It avoided category fraud, it avoided a likely category fraud win, and it avoided an entirely possible double win, which, if you think the internet was hard on one Winslet win, imagine if she'd won both. It was a goddamn miracle.
And anyway, The Reader is the more memorable part.
She’s not my choice for 2008 best actress ( both hawkins & hathaway were better ) but I’m happy she finally has one!
And I guess I’m in the minority but i believe she was better in the reader
I really wish she had won for this instead of The Reader. It’s one of her last truly great performances. She has a few good moments in The Reader (mainly the court scenes) but pretty much everything about that movie is just a big fat nope. Ralph Fiennes and Lena Olin were the best things about it imo. It’s weird how Marriage Story is about to get a bunch of Oscar nominations while Revolutionary Road received no love anywhere except for best costume design and a surprise Michael Shannon nod. The fight scene between Leo and Kate is 10x more real and authentic than whatever Adam and Scarlett were doing in Marriage Story.
@Ry It’s true actors rarely win for their best performances but this case has always bothered me considering she had a much better performance right there to be awarded instead. I saw Winslet herself even expressed in an interview a few years ago that she would’ve rather won for Revolutionary Road and how it was her passion project. The Academy just can’t resist their Holocaust Oscar bait.
For that lineup that year, I think Anne Hathaway deserved it the most. Would’ve preferred to see her win for that instead of Les Mis.
This was such a fun Oscar morning twist. I still remember being shocked, but excited because it cleared the way for Penelope.
I’ve never loved her in Revolutionary Road, as I find her too actorly here. But this review makes me want to re-watch. I think she’s brilliant in the reader, and even though that film isn’t perfect, it’s a performance with far more layers. She also does a lot with less screen time, and is all the more impressive for it.
Lena Olin is brilliant in the reader. In an alternate universe I wish she’d had a strong campaign.
I have a....weird relationship with this movie and Winslet's performance in it. For years I not only had Revolutionary Road in my top 10 of '08 (#5 tbh), I had BOTH Leo and Kate in my ballot in Actor and Actress, with Kate finishing second behind Hathaway. Then about I wanna say late 2017-early 2018 I re-watched it...and neither it or the two leads would even make my top 12 in their respective categories! The film itself is a bit sluggish to get thru and both of them try hard (in Leo's case a little too hard) but they can't save it. I think at the time I was really looking forward to what I thought would be Titanic 2.0.
Did she win for the right movie? Of the two she had that year, I'd say yes (The Reader's grown on me in the last few years). In her entire filmography? No. She's had MUCH better performaces she's been nominated for (Sense, Eternal Sunshine, Steve Jobs) and, shit, even ones she wasn't nominated for (The Holiday, Heavenly Creatures, Hamlet, Carnage)!
What would have happened if she got nominated for this in lead and The Reader in supporting? Does she win both? Or neither? Perhaps only in supporting?
Trivia:
Kidman was actually gonna play Hanna Schmidt, but drop out at the 11th hr n replaced by Winslet. The Reader was supposed to be released in 2009, but was rushed into its Dec 2008 premiere by Weinstein.
Kate alws bear a huge grudge on him for almost forcing the production to shut down if they dun adhere to the deadline. She nev thank him in her acceptance speech.
Had The Reader been released in 2009, Winslet wld hav wom for Revo Rd in 2008 n scored ano nom for The Reader the following yr!!
One moment where I went with a prediction and it came true. I predicted Winslet would be nominated for lead for THE READER and get nothing for this one.
Both would be right. I love The Reader
Probably need to revisit but I remember watching this and thinking, "nobody talks like this! they wish they do but they don't," with everybody doing DRAMATIC ACTING so I was happy she won for The Reader instead.
She should have won for Little Children, I think, but she's pretty great in The Reader. Her performance in Revolutionary Road was only a rehearsal for her wonderful work in Wonder Wheel.
I am eternally saddened that Kate didn't win for this.
i've always said she won the right year for the wrong movie - when i saw Revolutionary Road for the first time in the movie theatre, i could not take my eyes from the screen. it is an amazing movie with an AMAZING performance from KATE.
Y'all better cover Amy Adams in Arrival. One of the best acting I ever saw in one of the best flicks last decade. They SNUBBED her!
I love the novel and the film version does quite well by it. I thought both Winslet and DiCaprio were great. But the story is pretty bleak, and I think the Academy largely whiffed on it. As to whether Winslet deserved the award more for this than The Reader, I just don't remember The Reader that well. I do recall finding it just ok, sort of ordinary but somewhat lifeless Oscar Bait material, but with a good cast. At any rate, I'm glad Winslet has an Oscar. She's a terrific actress.
I am afraid you can be already writting a piece about Antonio Banderas and Pain and Glory... at this point, it seems that he won't be even nominated
The article is good. But in the general, I stay sad . The talks about movies and about a great actress like winslet is poor. The level of
disrespect is sad!
I hate when people use bullshit words like authentic to denigrate what they think is lesser.
When will she come back?
She'll be back in Amonite next year a true story with Saorsie Ronan.
She’s never looked more stunning than in this film. Deakins should photograph her more often.
Love her in The Reader and think she’s great in this, so I’m OK with how it went down at the Oscars. Glad she won for Lead.
The Reader is bad and Kate is just OK in it--with a bad accent. She's terrific in RR, which is an underrated film. Leo is also great in the film. Agree--right year, wrong movie.
If Gena Rowlands gave the exact same performance of the exact same screenplay in the 70's you'd all be praising her to high heavens.
I was thinking about The Reader yesterday, and wondered if it would play well these days. I think Revolutionary Road's themes are more timeless, as is her performance. While The Reader was a lesser performance, I think "Oscar winner Kate Winslet" will be remembered for an overall impressive body of work, RR nearing the top.
I take it lead was tallied before supporting and she just made it to fifth spot with the category confusion and campaigned lead contending role pulling votes(Rev. Road), thus putting her likely first or second polling Reader bid in supporting (The proven more passionately supported role that season) illegible and kicking Hawkins out at sixth in lead. I'm bad with how the process works, but is that possible?
Agreed with Anon. I can't feel too bad about Hathaway's Les Mis win since the women she robbed already had two Oscars, but I'm still a bit bitter I must confess. Not make up the cringiest nicknames (e.g. Othieflia Stoleman or whatever terrible title the idiots who can't wait for the inevitable Close Oscar win come up with. Extremely "fetch" of them) but still hit with a pang of regret.
I haven't revisited either REVOLUTIONARY ROAD or THE READER in years, but this gives me some motivation to go back and review. In my memory, this is the better performance, but we all know how our perceptions change once we get far away from the PR buzz and punditry and can just focus on the work...
Two side notes:
Thomas Newman's score for REV ROAD is amazing - he got nominated that year for a different score, for WALL-E...and he's still waiting for an Oscar win. (Maybe 1917 finally does it?)
You could write something about this for Leo...I still can't fathom how he got nominated for BLOOD DIAMOND the year he gave one of his all time best performances in THE DEPARTED.
She most definitely DID NOT win for the right movie. Such a weird development, I wonder who suddenly decided that The Reader was IT not just for Winslet but for the rest of the undeserved nominations it got. The Academy fell so hard for it, it ruined her chance at double nods. Although I wouldn’t want the 5 supporting ladies from 2008 to lose their nominations in favor of this boring film.
The end goal was for Winslet to get her due and she did, so...
Leo and Kate literally screaming at each other for two hours. I'm so glad this film lost awards traction by the time the Oscar nominations came around that year. No thanks to the movie and her performance in it.
I'm just glad she got an Oscar. To echo what some other commenters said, I think her best roles were Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Little Children (a curiously forgotten movie). She was the glue that held those films together.
She should have two Leading Actress Oscars IMO. One for REVOLUTIONARY ROAD and one for LITTLE CHILDREN.
winslet always was the firt choice of director Daldry. Not Kidman!
Please can we discuss what will be happend, If The Reader was not so rushed made and compete in 2009/2010. I really think Winslet would be a Double Winner in a row. She was so overdue in 2008, that no One has a real Chance agaist her, when it came to the main Awards (Globes, BAFTA, SAG, OSCAR) and 2009/2010 was a weak her for actresses. She could easily get nominated and won against Bullock or Streep.
And Ist tragic that she lost against a lead Performance 7 Years later. Her Performance in Steve Jobs was superior then Vikander in Danish Girl. Category fraud Comes along twice agaist against. Her own and in case of Alicia. Sadly. What a nice line up with Leo and Kate had won in the same year! Can we Dream?
I'll take a look at Revolutionary Road again. I loved The Reader and since she is near the top of my favorite actresses of all time, I was thrilled she won.
But her greatest achievement to me, so far, was Eternal Sunshine. Playing a character that was loopy and ethereal, and then had her romance with Jim Carrey which then fell apart, she was mesmerizing, in my book.