Revolutionary Road (2008)

Michael Shannon: John Givings

Photos 

Quotes 

• John Givings : The hopeless emptiness? Now, you've said it. Plenty of people are on to the emptiness; but, it takes real guts to see the hopelessness. Wow.

• John Givings : You want to play house you got to have a job. You want to play very nice house, very sweeeeeet house; then, you got to have a job you don't like! Anyone comes along and says, "What do you do it for?" he's probably on a four-hour pass from the state funny farm. All agreed?

• Frank Wheeler : Actually, there's been a change in plans. I thought maybe it was obvious. April, here is pregnant.

  Mr. Howard Givings : Congratulations!

  Mrs. Helen Givings : Oh, April, I can't tell you how pleased I am! Oh, but I expect you'll be needing a bigger house now. Won't you?

  John Givings : Hold on a second now Mom. Hold on a second, Mom. I-I don't get this? I mean, what's so obvious about it? I mean, okay, she's pregnant. So what? Don't people have babies in Europe?

  Frank Wheeler : Suppose we just say that people anywhere aren't very well advised to have babies unless they can afford it.

  John Givings : Okay. Okay, it's a question of money. Money's a good reason. But, its hardly ever the *real* reason. What's the real reason? Wife talk you out of it or what? Little woman, decides she isn't quite ready to playing house? No. No, that's not it. I can tell. She looks too tough and mad as hell. Okay, then, it must have been you! What happened?

  Mrs. Helen Givings : John, please. You're being very rude.

  John Givings : No, no. What happened, Frank? You get cold feet? You decide - you're better off here, after all? You figure, it's more - comfy here in the old hopelessness emptiness, after all? Well, that did it! Look at his face. What's a matter, Wheeler? Am I gettin' warm?

• Mrs. Helen Givings : April, I'm sorry. I'm *so* sorry.

  John Givings : Oh, right! Sorry. Sorry! Sorry! Oh-oh! Oh mom, have I said I'm sorry enough times, damn? I am sorry, too. I'm just about the sorriest bastard I know. But get right down to it, I don't have a whole hell of a lot to be glad about, do I?

  John Givings : [to a pregnant April]  Oh but hey, you know what? I am glad about one thing. You wanna know what I'm glad about? I'm glad I'm not gonna be that kid.

• John Givings : Big man you got there, April. Big family man. I feel sorry for you. Still, maybe you deserve each other. I mean, the way you look right now, I'm beginning to feel sorry for him too. You must give him a pretty bad time if makin' babies is the only way he can prove he's got a pair of balls.

• John Givings : You a lawyer, Frank?

  Frank Wheeler : No, I'm not.

  John Givings : I could use a lawyer...

  Mr. Howard Givings : John, let's not get started again about the lawyer.

  John Givings : Pop, couldn't you just sit there and eat your wonderful egg salad, and quit horning in?

  [Returns his attention to Frank] 

  John Givings : See, I've got a good many questions to ask and I'm willing to pay for the answers... Now, I don't need to be told that a man who goes after his mother with a coffee table is putting himself in a weak position, legally; that's obvious.

  Mrs. Helen Givings : John, come and have a look out this fabulous picture window.

  [She walks to the window] 

  John Givings : If he hits her with it and kills her, that's a criminal case...

  Mrs. Helen Givings : Oh, look, the sun's coming out!

  John Givings : If all he does is break the coffee table and give her a certain amount of aggravation and she decides to go to court over it, that's a civil case...

  Mrs. Helen Givings : Maybe we'll see a rainbow! John, come have a look...

  John Givings : Ma, how about doing everybody a favor? How about shutting up?

• John Givings : Helen's been talkin' it up about you people for months. The nice young Wheelers on Revolutionary Road. The nice young revolutionaries on Wheeler Road.

• John Givings : You know something? I wouldn't be surprised if he knocked her up on purpose just so he could spend the rest of his life hiding behind a maternity dress. That way he'd never have to find out what he's really made of!

• April Wheeler : I hear you're a mathematician.

  John Givings : You hear wrong. Its all gone now.

  April Wheeler : All gone?

  John Givings : You know what electrical shock treatments are?

  April Wheeler : Yes. Yes, I do.

  John Givings : I had thirty-seven. It's supposed to jolt out the emotional problems. It just jolted out the mathematics.