Spiritual Lessons From the 2009 Oscar Nominees

'Revolutionary Road': A Quiet Life Can Be a Happy Life

3 nominations, including Best Supporting Actor

Frank and April Wheeler are beautiful people. They live in a beautiful house. They have beautiful children. So why are they miserable?

Turns out, their picture-perfect place on Revolutionary Road might as well be Guantanamo Bay. Frank and April don't want this 1950s-suburbian trope, with its stay-at-home moms, green lawns, and hidden repression. No, they long for a 21st-century trope—a life filled with world travel and adventure and abandon. The physical comforts of their own era don't suit them, so maybe emotional bohemianism will.

The film subtly suggests that both roads lead to a existential cul-de-sac. And for people of faith—any faith—who watch this film, it's hard not to wonder if part of the Wheelers' problem is their lack of spiritual moorings. Perhaps no-one told them there's joy to be found in a quiet life well lived, or that it takes more to cure life's woes than a timely move to France.