Average Rating: 
Rating: - Gangster Daddy
Addicts to realism will find many balloons to puncture in this period gangster movie with many well-known stars in the major roles. One early contrivance vital to the plot occurs when Irish mob enforcer Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks) guns down rival gangsters with his young son watching. Naturally, eyewitnesses to murder are not popular with the big guys at the top of the mobster pyramid, even when they are children. But some of these guys are from the gang that couldn't shoot straight and instead of killing the eyewitness, they murder Sullivan's wife and youngest child. For Michael Sullivan, there is no way out except for the road trip and life on the lam, bad guys trying to blast him from all directions.
In spite of airing every gangster movie cliche, this film manages to be very entertaining and engaging, particularly with Tom Hanks and Paul Newman in the heavy roles. Newman plays a leathery dry mob kingpin with understated toughness of character. Hanks gets to display a wide range of his talents and runs the gamut from hardened killer to tender reticent dad as he tries to protect his only remaining son from thug life. The boy's sweetness is engaging in spite of the flatness of the role handed to him by the scriptwriters.
Whatever is lacking in the script is not lacking in the environment. Darkened scenes and rain-soaked streets are interesting backdrops for the blood-soaked mayhem. Set designs are lush and lavishly produced. The city of Chicago rises up before your eyes like a bustling glass and steel Mecca filled with Model T traffic. There's a diner scene which has Tom Hanks framed in the cafe window looking extremely Hopperesque, and a really exceptional assassination toward the end of the film when Hanks wets the bad guy down with three cold shots from his .45 semiautomatic. You've seen guys shot to death in bathtubs before, but this time you don't see it until the mirrored door swings closed behind executioner Hanks. Truly inspired cinematography but this film is no match for heavyweight gangster films like the Godfather sagas, Goodfellas, Casino, and others you may have seen.
Rating:  - The best movie of the year
...Go see Road to Perdition. That's pretty much all I have to say. I'll go on about all of the top-notch acting, cinemetogaraghy, production design, music, etc., but the point here is to see it. I'm not going to talk about the plot that much, but if you look at the movie poster, you should be able to at least guess most of it right there. Anyway, the acting is the best I've seen this whole year, with stellar performances by Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law, and Daniel Craig. The scenes between Tom Hanks and Paul Newman were great. Of course, it's always great to see two phenomonal actors on-screen together. More importantly, the chemistry between Tom Hanks and Tyler Hoechlin (his son in the movie) is wonderful. The production design is also very noteworthy. Throughout the movie, we are filled with the lush cityscape(s) of 1931. (If you have seen The Untouchables, the set desgin is a bit like that, but stepped up a notch.) We also are taken in to speakeasies, mob warehouses, and other landmarks of a 1931 era city, all rendered in exact detail as far as I can tell. The cinemetogarahy is exactly on the same level as the production design, showing in great exactness the landscape of cities in 1931. The music is also great, giving an epic, but sad, look at the movie. For those of you who are looking for a big gangster action movie, look elsewhere. Although there is some shooting, (most of which is very bloody/gruesome) this is NOT the movie for action fans. All in all: Road to Perdition is a modern masterpiece, complete with phenomonal acting, great music, fantastic production design, and heart-wrenching drama. A must see. 2002; 119 minutes; RATED R for some strong language, gruesome violence, and brief drug use; MY GRADE: A+. NOTE: I'd like to warn you readers that if you don't see this movie, Tom Hanks might come to your house with his Tommy Gun.
Rating: - Mendes And Gentlemen . . . On The Road To Perdition
For those of you confused by the title, this is not Hope and Crosby's version of the Faustian myth. It's Sam Mendes follow-up to "American Beauty". It's Tom Hanks most internalized acting performance. It's Paul Newman making a rare, and much needed, return to the big screen. It's Jude Law with bad teeth and a balding patch, Jennifer Jason Leigh with almost no lines, and Conrad Hall with another virtuoso example of how to light a movie. It's all these things and more. But somehow, it also manages to be all these things and less. But more on that later.Like in his previous film, Sam Mendes gives away the fate of his main character within the first couple lines of dialogue. The wheel has been set a-spinning, and the only question is how it all plays out. Mendes is a director less interested in the final destination than in the road taken to get there ("Road to Beauty" might have been a better title for his first film; then again, "American Perdition" would be quite apt here). Although, to be fair, the final outcome appears more in doubt here than in that last effort, even with all the gangster talk about "the life we chose" and "none of us will see heaven." Visually, Mendes knows how to frame a scene. Mostly, we see things from the point of view of Michael Sullivan, Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin), the eldest son of Mike Sullivan, Sr. (Tom Hanks), lead enforcer for town boss John Rooney (Paul Newman). Mike Jr. stows away in his father's car one night, in the hopes of finding out how the old man pays the bills. Through a hole in the wall, at feet level so all he can see of his dad are his shoes, he witnesses the brutal, tommy gun murder of a bootlegger. This is the moment that sets the film down its road. Mendes handles it perfectly, allowing the audience to experience the scene as Young Mike does: the visceral destruction and the sorrow of it all, the sonic boom of guns going off in unison, twinkling as bullet shells hit the floor. Watch how this scene, with its over-the-top cacophony of sounds, is contrasted by a later shooting. Scored only by the powerful rhythm of the ocean, which sounds like the breathing of a giant, and bathed in white light, whereas the earlier scene was set on a rainy night, the emotional resonance of this scene is heartbreaking. It's a skillful cinematic moment, made more impressive when one realizes it was filmed by a man making only his second movie. Hanks is quiet and reserved as the cold-blooded mob killer. It's not a very glamorous role, though. Sure, he shows prodigious talent at his job. And he gets to stomp around armed with a cool noir get-up: fedora, overcoat, tommy gun. But he looks worn down, dirty, unshaven, and, quite frankly, pudgy for the majority of the film. No matter. Because even when he's not saying anything, Hanks manages to say everything. His eyes do much of the work here, replacing the charm that he usually uses to get through big parts. It's not as fine a piece of work as his best performance, "Saving Private Ryan", but it's got many of the same characteristics, and is surely in the same ballpark. Newman, relegated to playing supporting character parts these days, proves he still has the chops to rise to the occasion. Rooney must be a lovable old coot (he is), a distant father (he is), a feared dictator (he is), a man capable of menacing anger (he is; to my surprise, Newman still has the force of will to bang on a table and make the whole room feel it), and one who can just as easily resign himself to his own fate (he does). The silver in his hair and the wrinkles on his face may age him, but that low, tremulous voice help him deliver another in a long line of vintage Paul Newman performances. He's still a treasure. Jude Law has a fairly enigmatic part. Best known for works where he is the definitive male object of desire, here Law sports a thinning hairline, unkempt fingernails, and rotting brown teeth. I question the choice of casting Law for this role, like I question the choice of casting the gorgeous Cameron Diaz in "Being John Malkovich": why not just get an uglier actor? But, like Diaz, Law acts his way into my good graces (just like he always does). His photographer/killer moves like an agitated cat. Even though the character is somewhat two-dimensional, Law manages to bring him to life. Sadly, these three actors, some of my favourites, don't get many chances to shine together. But when they do, you aren't going to find anything better. A cast full of fine actors supports them. Stanley Tucci is reserved and business like as Capone right-hand man Frank Nitti. Daniel Craig does well showing the envy and pettiness of Connor Rooney, a son tormented by a father who'd prefer he was a different man. Jennifer Jason Leigh, an actress of stunning power, has absolutely nothing to do here. If I counted right, she has but three lines. Shame, that. And young Tyler Hoechlin doesn't do anything outstanding as Young Mike, but that's probably for the best. Inexperienced kid actors who try too hard get on my last nerve. Hoechlin plays it close to the chest and it works. Although greatly marred by an opening and closing narration, which felt forced, tacked-on, and unrealistic in a film rife with harsh reality, "Road to Perdition" is a fine technical piece of work. While something intangible keeps it from becoming a great film, one that you can clutch to your bosom as an example of the human condition writ large, it still manages to be very, very good.
|
