Revolutionary Roads - Book, Script & Movie

A while back, I read in the entertainment press that this book was going to be made into a movie. The book was very popular in the 70's. I've never heard of it, prior to reading about it, but thought it would be interesting following the process of how a book gets made into a film, in concept anyway. I read the book, and then the screenplay and today I watched the DVD.

First of all, I have to say I have no idea why this book got make into a movie, other than the book was popular back whenever. Personally, I though the book was boring, but it did have an interesting premise. The book was basically about how a city bohemian/dreamer marries his adoring girlfriend upon find out that she is pregnant with his child. Fast forward a couple of years, they are stuck in suburbia, paying a mortgage, raising two kids, and he is a cog in a wheel at a large corporation, and basically they begin to wonder if this is IT? Or is there a third act in their life somewhere?

They are in their early 30's and they realize if there is going to be an Act III, they need to start working on it now, otherwise time will pass and they'll become more entrenched in their mundane life. Granted, this is a good premise, however the story takes place in the late 50's and a lot of the minor issues in which the couple struggle with are not relevant today, most notably abortion wasn't legal back then today it is. Because the struggle are somewhat dated, the story seems dated.

If the story was brought current, and the script actually followed the book more carefully then this might have been a good movie, but it didn't. In the book it is clear who is the protagonist and who is the antagonist. In the script and movie, it not clear, but it almost seems like they switched the protagonist with the antagonist. My recommendation skip all three. None are worth the time.

But what I don't understand is how does something like this get made into a movie with very talented actors? I'm guessing the movie probably broke even after DVD sales, but it was definitely no blockbuster.