Rating- * * * * * (5/5)
Of all the great gangster pictures I have ever seen, this one certainly surprised me the most. When you watch a mob movie, there are certain expectations that you have going into the movie (brutal violence, gritty realism, tough guys and strong willed women). What you don’t expect from a gangster movie is family drama and touching humanity. But that is what you get with Road to Perdition and the result is wondrous. The film stars Tom Hanks as a mob enforcer working for mob boss Paul Newman. Newman has somewhat adopted Hanks as his own son even though Newman has a real son who is not so fond of Hanks. Newman rules his town with a loving, soft hand but when someone gets out of line, he will not hesitate to sick his enforcers on them. Unfortunately, Newman’s son, his biological son that is, is a little crazy and sometimes acts impulsively. When Hank’s son begins to question his father’s line of work, he rides along hidden in the backs of his father’s car and witnesses his father at work. When Newman’s son begins to suspect that the boy might squeal, he tries to have him and Hanks executed. The two flee the city and run for their lives and the ensuing journey leads them to several different adventures. Along the way they are pursued by a rogue hit man played by Jude Law who gets a kind of sick thrill out of photographing his victims. Law is wonderfully creepy as the villain and this is yet another great performance by who I believe to be one of the best young actors out there. Hanks and Newman also turn in great performances as usual and I believe that Hanks may have a legitimate shot at an Oscar for this role. But the real accomplishments of Road to Perdition come from the brilliant visuals created by director Sam Mendes and legendary cinematography Conrad Hall. The two worked together on Mendes first film American Beauty and their second effort is even more visually stunning, if less emotionally powerful. The use of shadows is better than I’ve ever seen in any film and Hall has a way of making the most violent shots seem sad and moving rather than shocking and grotesque. This is without a doubt the best film of the summer and one of the best films of the year so far. It will be interesting to see if the Academy voters still remember it next January when the ballots go out. I’m almost certain that they will.