THIS WEEK'S NEW TO RENT DVDs...

Jul 2 2009

Revolutionary Road (15) Starring: Leonardo Dicaprio, Kate Winslet, Michael Shannon, Kathy Bates, Richard Easton, David Harbour

Frank Wheeler (DiCaprio) and aspiring actress April Johnson (Winslet) meet at a cocktail party, fall in love and marry. They move into a pretty house on Revolutionary Road, raise two children and forge plans to move to Paris, where she can take a well-paid secretarial position at a government agency and he can decide what he wants to do with his life. Nosy neighbour Mrs Givings (Bates) and her husband (Easton)

don't understand Frank and April's desire to abandon America.The only person who shares their view is the Givings' emotionally-damaged son John (Shannon). Dreams of the French capital crumble when Frank sleeps with a secretary, and an unhappy April gives in to the advances of married neighbour Shep (Harbour). If you feel a chill in the air, it's just Sam Mendes's beautifully-crafted yet emotionally cold adaptation of the novel by Richard Yates. Set in 1950s suburban Connecticut, Revolutionary Road doesn't move us at all during the opening hour. The film is technically polished, including flawless production design and Roger Deakin's cinematography. Yet we struggle to emotionally connect to Frank and April, misery tumbling from their mouths and sadness etched in every furrow of their brows.

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Gran Torino (15) Starring: Clint Eastwood, Bee Vang, Ahney Her, Christopher Carley

Korean War veteran Walt Kowalski (Eastwood) is consumed by grief over his wife's death and harbours resentment towards his sons Mitch and Steve, who want to ship him off to a care home. The old coot has no interest in the sermons of local priest, Father Janovich (Carley), and even less time for the Asian next-door neighbours he labels "swamp rats". When Hmong gang-banger Spider and his four-strong posse scrap with neighbour's son Thao (Vang) on his lawn, Walt intervenes with a rifle. Spider and co flee the scene and Thao's older sister Sue (Her) shows her gratitude by strengthening ties between the two households. Against the odds, Walt finds himself warming to his neighbours and he takes Thao under his wing. Gran Torino is another beautifully crafted and timely humanist drama from Eastwood, which provokes difficult, moral questions about responsibility and sacrifice in a world riven by gang violence. The strength of the performance is Eastwood's ability to chip away at Walt's steely facade and reveal the rage within. Vang and Her pale in comparison, particularly in the heart-wrenching final act when Walt proves that love truly has no limits. 3002 3002 3002 3002 3002