The Road to Perdition

July 14, 2002

The Road to Perdition opened this weekend, hoping to rack in some bucks and start the Oscar sweepstakes a bit early. The film has a tremendous pedigree, starring Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law and Stanley Tucci, directed by Sam Mendes and lit by ace cinematographer Conrad L. Hall. Based on the graphic novel by Max Allen Collins, Road to Perdition follows Michael Sullivan (Hanks), a mob assassin forced on the run from his own old employers with his son in tow when the kid witnesses a gangland killing.

The movie itself is technically pretty close to perfect. The acting all around is very, very good, including the rare decent performance from the child actor. Tom Hanks and Paul Newman give commanding performances, especially Newman, who dominates the screen in his few minutes of work. The design is wonderful, and Hall’s cinematography is a mortal lock for an Oscar. Mendes has a pretty good eye for staging and blocking, and everything looks incredible.

And yet, with all this, the film feels like a disappointment. The problem isn’t so much with the execution as it is with the entire approach to the movie. The book is essentially a John Woo version of Lone Wolf and Cub set in gangland Chicago, complete with religious melodrama and two fisted shootouts. The core of the book consists of the numerous bank heists the two Sullivans pull, with each heist getting dicier than the last, the two bonding and the younger Sullivan learning more and more about himself and his father. The characters are developed through the action.

The film takes a more dramatic approach, shuttling the action set pieces into a few montages, and adding many more character moments. As a result, the film runs at a very deliberate pace. Every shot and scene is so meticulously rendered that the material tends to lose its immediacy, its urgency. It never quite feels like the Sullivans are on the run, or in grave mortal danger. As the ending closes, it seems more obligatory than it does triumphant or tragic. You keep expecting it to break out physically and emotionally, but it stays calmly measured.

I don’t want to get too down on Road to Perdition, because it’s a good movie. But it never really becomes great, mostly because Mendes seems so intent on making something important and award winning that the film feels stifled.

Posted in Moving Pictures