Feuding spouses Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet (above) share a tender moment.
Gary Thompson: Why enjoy yourself? Stay home, pop in a DVD & get depressed
IF I WERE YOU, I'd be at "The Hangover" this weekend, but if you want to stay at home and get depressed, there are DVDs that will accommodate you.
"Revolutionary Road" is based on Richard Yates' celebrated novel of suburban despair and features Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio as feuding spouses who start out young, hip and hopeful, and end up at each other's throats. Tough times for the "Titanic" Two, particularly for Kate, whose character decides that her heart will not go on. The movie yielded an Oscar nomination for Michael Shannon as the local mental patient who's the first to puncture their illusory happiness. The $29.98 DVD feature as commentary from director Sam Mendes, who may explain why you should be watching it.
There's a more upbeat ending to "Defiance," Ed Zwick's grim, determined version of the true story of Jewish partisans (Dan Craig, Liev Schreiber) who resisted Nazis in Eastern Europe during WWII, and built a small, mobile society of refugees in the forest.
The movie was earnest and heavy, but the $29.98 DVD has some interesting special features, including interviews with some of the surviving refugees and their families. *
