“I’ll say it again: Revolutionary Road is one of the best, if not the best, movie of 2008,” writes HE reader Jeremy Fassler. “It was a great book and it made an equally great movie.

“But I was initially shocked by how alone I was in this feeling. Several of my friends either hated the film or refused to see it. Every single year there’s one film I love which my friends don’t warm to. In previous years those films were Sideways and Brokeback Mountain, proving that typically I’m vindicated in these situations.

“After thinking about it for a while, I think people simply are uncomfortable when marital discomfort is thrown in their faces. This movie makes no bones about this. From the first scene you know you’re not going to leave the theater doing a tap dance. I think that put people off, a movie starting with your two lead actors getting in a major fight. From then on, the people I know complained that they felt no sympathy for anyone in the film.

“For some reason stories of marital trauma don’t depress me. Depressing is a movie about someone who has an incredibly shitty life, like The Wrestler or Monster. But people, especially middle-aged ones, don’t want to see marital trauma thrown back in their faces.

“On the flip side is The Reader, a film dealing with the greatest tragedy in human history — and somehow that’s not depressing for a lot of people because they can feel good about supporting a film dealing with such a sensitive topic.

“Make no mistake: Kate Winslet deserves the Best Actress Oscar for Revolutionary Road, for giving one of the best performances of the year and perhaps her best ever.”