Revisiting Revolutionary Road

I watched this in the moviehouse a year ago and I admit I wasn't terribly impressed. Well, the movie is well made and the acting is superb, it's just that, it's a bit hard to feel for the characters, especially from someone like me who comes from a poorer country than America. In a land of wealth and opportunity, it kinda gets lost on me why these characters feel sorry for themselves. They don't live in a Communist country or in a Moslem country with very strict Sharia laws. They are not disabled or special in any kind of way. So what's holding them back? Anyhow, I do feel the despair in Winslet's character and I guess living in 1950s America had its restrictions on women. So that was the best thing she could do given the situation she was in. Maybe I should read the original novel, written in 1961. Maybe in words, I could clearly understand why these people would act this way - with catastrophic consequences in the end. Winslet and de Caprio are superb in it and Michael Shannon, who got an Oscar nom for this role, is quite a revelation!