By Courtney L. Woods
Family and loyalty seem to be entwined in every Mob movie and television show; the Mob as a family, and within those families, blood relations of fathers and sons. The father and son relationship is predominant in the stylish new mob flick “Road to Perdition,” which seems to have everything going for it.
Sam Mendes directs his sophomore effort after his staggering breakthrough with 1999’s “American Beauty,” a film that landed him the Oscar for directing. “Road to Perdition” also has an all-star cast and a morality tale to boot.
Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks) is an Illinois family man who moonlights as a tommy-gun-carrying, trench coat and fedora-wearing assassin for Irish kingpin John Rooney (Paul Newman). Rooney has adopted Sullivan as his own, much to the chagrin of Connor (Daniel Craig) who is Rooney’s real son and who is quite jealous of his father’s affection for Michael. Michael’s eldest son, Michael Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin), grows curious about his father’s profession and tags along on a hit. It is a horrifying experience for him that is ultimately the undoing of his family and any sense of normalcy.
Michael’s wife and youngest son are murdered, and he and Michael Jr. are thrust onto the road to seek help in Chicago from Al Capone’s cohorts. All of this is to no avail; but Michael is set on vengeance and protecting his remaining son. So they start robbing banks- some protection, huh?
Somewhere into the second hour of the movie, Harlen Maguire (Jude Law) is introduced. He is a thoroughly frightening character with long, dirty nails, butter-yellow teeth and a pension for photographing corpses as a freelance member of the press. He is also a part-time hired killer, with a new hit out on Michael Sullivan and his twelve-year-old son. He’s just plain creepy; there is no other word to describe it.
“Road to Perdition” is not your run-of-the-mill Tom Hanks film. He is very much playing against his norm; the good soldier, prison guard, astronaut, or savant from Alabama. He is not good in any way, shape or form. His only good intention is that his son become a good man- and not like him. His performance is nonetheless engaging as he walks through the rain, water trickling off his trench coat and hat, and toting the tommy-gun. He kills mercilessly, and the audience roots for him. If Denzel can play a bad guy and win an Oscar (as predicted by the critic), then so can Tom Hanks.
Paul Newman is brilliant, however understated, as the boss. He is visibly torn between two sons; a trusted adopted son and a reckless biological son. He tells Tom Hanks something to the like of “none of us will ever see heaven,” yet he is devout in his Catholic faith and in a perpetual cycle of sin and
forgiveness. Paul Newman is the man. He nearly steals this picture from Tom Hanks; everyone should take notice.
Rest assured that the emotion is neither cheap nor hokey. The film is violent and brutal and portrays fathers and sons much better than the melodramatic “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” portrays mothers and daughters. Fans of stylish films and Mob movies will dig deep and revel in the plot. For those of you who have short attention spans and favor bathroom humor, don’t worry- “Scooby-Doo” is still playing.
CARDINAL GRADE: A
