First of all, the plot. April Wheeler is a young actress and Frank Wheeler a war vet who's traveled the world. The two fortuitously meet at a party and (seemingly instantly) fall in love. The movie jumps to them buying a nice house in the suburbs, with the house of Kathy Bates, and starting their life together. They are clearly not happy here. Frank feels lost in corporate America and April isn't content being a housewife. To combat their hopeless, emptiness existence in the suburbs, they cobble out a plan to live in Paris as they feel that'd be the end of their problems. Did they go to Paris? Was it the end of their problems? Did they live happily ever after? Well you'll just have to pay 12 bucks to find out.
It seems to me that Sam Mendes hates the suburbs. He talks about the hopeless emptiness of the suburbs but this really just applies to April Wheeler and to no other character in the movie. Sure, she plays an architype and that she is meant to represent housewives who yearn for more - that is not to say that housewives necessarily NEED to yearn for more, just that in the '50's there were certainly some that did and for them, there wasn't much of an alternative.
The problem is, April Wheeler is wholy unlikable. It is not Frank Wheeler's fault that she only married him because she thought he could take her places. Sure Frank isn't a prize himself, he cheats on his wife, says things that are cruel, but most of his actions are really just a product of April's unhappiness in her situation and he's at his wits end with what to do - that and he hates his job.
In the end, I didn't feel sorry for April and her plight, we aren't offered enough of her history. We aren't shown any signs of her free spirit nature or any other reason she may not fit into this life, we are just left to assume that this is the case. You can just say someone is a free spirit, it's insulting.
I suppose I'll say that I liked it even though it won't be in my top ten. The problem is that I'm not sure that society was the problem in this movie, it's the couple. It wasn't the suburbs' fault that April and Frank were unhappy. It wasn't Franks fault that April was unhappy. It's her fault for not taking ownership of her life when she has the chance. Maybe that was Sam Mendes' point and myself and a whole bunch of reviewers have it wrong, who knows. It is a well made movie with terrific performances and I respect what Sam Mendes was trying to do, I just would have told the story a little differently by starting it a little earlier in their lives and by trying to make the lead character a little more sympathetic. I give it:
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