This film stands out as the single largest gathering of amazing film talent this year in all aspects of the work. This film has it all in terms of talent; there’s the stylish and savvy young director (Sam Mendes), one of the greatest actors of all time (Paul Newman), one of the greatest actors of our time (Tom Hanks), one of the most promising up and coming actors (Jude Law), and without a doubt THE most brilliant cinematographer of the last 50 years, the late, great Conrad Hall. All of these individuals are far too talented to ever produce something that was less than great and their talents all shine through individually and collectively in Road to Perdition. The story is a very complex one involving family relationships, mobsters, and the afterlife. Rarely is a mob film as sentimental and emotionally driven as Road to Perdition and Sam Mendes delves into unexplored territory unapologetically just as he did in American Beauty. We also get to see one of the best villains in recent history in Jude Law, who plays a man who gets his psychopathic jollies out of being a hit-man and then photographing his victims. While the story is very moving and for the most part extremely well-acted, the true brilliance of this film is in Conrad Hall’s cinematography. Never in my life have I seen a color film photographed as beautifully and poetically as Road to Perdition and it is perhaps Hall’s photography that even allows this film to get away with being in color. There are scenes where the photography is massively understated, forcing us to focus on the action. Then there are also scenes where the photography is almost overtly dramatic, as when a shoot out in the rain becomes a violent ballet of bullets. This film, if nothing else, serves as a fitting book-end to an illustrious career and demonstrates the true power that great cinematography can have in a film. While the film may leave a little to be desired in terms of content, Road to Perdition deserves recognition as being one of the most technically brilliant films in years and certainly the best-photographed film of 2002.