Happy in your relationship? Sure? Absolutely, utterly, got-the-tattoo-to-prove-it certain? You’ll need to be, because this adaptation of Richard Yates’ downbeat masterpiece is enough to have diamond wedding couples begging for marriage guidance.

Indeed, the title caption hasn’t even appeared before Kate and Leo’s 1950s suburbanites April and Frank have met, married and had their first blazing row.

They’ve just left the opening night of her amateur dramatic production... and April was awful. Frustrated at her lack of appreciation for his sympathy, Frank becomes a little too frank. What we have here is a communication problem.

After seven years and two kids (seldom seen or heard), everyone around them thinks they got it swell. But both are being suffocated by suburbia.

Frank is just another suit in New York City, barely able to get enthusiastic about his office affair let alone his job, while April is equally tired of playing the perfect housewife (though it’s one of her better performances).

Out of the blue, April suggests a move to France. She will provide while Frank finds a more rewarding channel for his talents. This is radical - revolutionary, even. (The titular irony is that they live in the heartland of conformity.)

Their neighbours are stunned, especially Helen (Bates), the local busybody-cum-estate agent who regularly visits with her son John (the scene-stealing Shannon). A breakdown sufferer on day release, John (perhaps) plays on his condition to speak his highly perceptive mind.

But as events conspire to keep them where they are, the marital cracks reopen.

Fundamentally weak, Frank is all talk and no action. April is the opposite, bottling her feelings yet unleashing them only under duress. So who better to play a young couple heading for the iceberg of bitterness and broken dreams than the Titanic twosome?

Winslet is currently peerless in her ability to simultaneously convey maturity and naivity, and DiCaprio’s boyish looks make it easy to accept Frank’s adolescent attitude.

In terms of performance and production, this is an undeniably high-quality affair.

Elliott Noble