Sam Mendes, director of 1999's feted American Beauty, returns for another look beneath the smiling, rogued face of American suburbia. It's as ugly as before. I was sleepy, so only the shouted speeches came through, and my impression is that neither half of the unhappy couple, played by Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, is a soft-spoken sufferer: I never had time to fall asleep between eruptions. Amanda says it's good.
One loud, gushing speech reminded me of a scene I love in The Sun Also Rises. The Winslet character has hatched a plan to relocate the family to Paris, where she will work as a secretary in the civil service and her husband will have time to "discover himself." As she breathlessly described her idea to the DiCaprio character, I thought of Robert Cohn, who did live in Paris, complaining to Jake Barnes that his life was half over and slipping away without being lived. In another thirty-five years, Cohn says, we all shall be dead. "What the hell," answers Jake, "what the hell?" Cohn proposes a trip to South America. Jake says, "Paris is a good town. Why don't you start living your life in Paris?"
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