THE TURNING POINT

Some films begin by lulling audiences gradually into their world. They seduce with imagery, sensation and sound.

And then there are those like “Revolutionary Road” -- about a married couple of dreamers stranded in the conformity of the 1950s -- that open with a cold thwack in the face, with a marital spat so annihilating it makes the heart beat faster.

“The structure begins with them in utter despair, and then they fall in love again, and it disintegrates and they get pulled downstream,” says Sam Mendes, describing the unusual pyramid shape of the film based on the novel by Richard Yates.

In the scene, the couple is driving home from a ghastly amateur theater production in which April Wheeler (Kate Winslet) has starred.

“That scene became pivotal. You can’t go half-hearted for a scene like that. The point is: They have been brought so low that they have to do something about it. If the audience goes with it, then they’re going to be ready to go on the ride. If they don’t, we’ve lost them.”

Driving along in the dark, the preternaturally beautiful pair begins to bicker, then fight. They skid to a stop on the side. April gets out of the car. A furious Frank Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio) follows. Mendes says, for this scene, he actually took the character’s movement right from Yates’ book.

“He staged that scene. I didn’t stage that scene. He says exactly how she moves away from the car, when she stops, where she’s looking at, how she’s looking. . . . Even the greatest novelist often can’t see where the people are moving or even bother to describe it. He has an uncanny ability to describe what people are doing and where.”

And, of course, the utter desolation of a couple in a deteriorating folie a deux.

“They’ve managed to get to the point where they’re so savage with each other, they’re almost ashamed at the end. They are ashamed.”

-- Rachel Abramowitz