Set in 1955, the plot focuses on the hopes and aspirations of self-assured Frank and April Wheeler, who forsake life in the city in order to raise their children in the Connecticut suburbs, where they see themselves as very different from their neighbors in the Revolutionary Hill Estates.
April is an aspiring actress who yearns to move to Paris, and Frank initially likes the idea. But when the healthy salary increase connected to a promotion at the corporation he despises makes the job easier to bear, he becomes less enamored with his wife's dream. He begins drinking too heavily and engages in an affair with co-worker Maureen Grube in celebration of his 30th birthday, while April has a tryst of her own with neighbor Shep Campbell.
As the Wheelers try to free themselves from their dull existence, their marriage slowly dissolves into an endless cycle of bitter arguments and jealous recriminations while they struggle to maintain a facade of domestic bliss. Only John Givings, the clinically insane son of local realtor Helen and her husband Howard, is able to see what's simmering beneath their surface.
Revolutionary Road is a 2008 British/American drama film directed by Sam Mendes. The screenplay by Justin Haythe is based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Richard Yates. The film is scheduled to be released in the United States on December 26, 2008.
