Road to Perdition (2002, R)

Directed by: Sam Mendes

Grade: B

Road to Perdition is a classic father-son relationship story, set during the Prohibition-era, that is expressed as cold, dark, and yet all the more meaningful.  The film definitely keeps its distance between itself and the audience, and I suspect that this is what causes the film to feel so cold and emotionless in tenor.  Did I feel anything when Michael Sullivan’s family is gunned down in cold blood?  Or when Sullivan takes his revenge out on those who betrayed him?  No, I didn’t feel much.  And yet, director Sam Mendes has crafted the film on such a professional level.  The camerawork is absolutely striking, the performances are uniquely powerful (even in a slightly impassive sense), the story is brutal and real, and the film feels legitimately genuine in its visual depiction of the 1930s.  Therefore, Road to Perdition has definitely more going for it then as a simple-going Tom Hanks star vehicle.  The core of the story is really the relationship we begin to see between Sullivan and his son, as Sullivan does all he can to keep his son out of the crime world.  There are messages in Road to Perdition, however reserved they are, to be read, and Mendes couldn’t have made his film look or feel any more real.  This is a film that will have audiences either holding in high esteem or dismissing as inert and derivative, but the very clear fact that Road to Perdition is willing to take those risks is what makes even its commonplace ambition decent and fair.  B