Road To Perdition (2002) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Sam Mendes

Starring:  Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Daniel Craig, Jude Law, Tyler Hoechlin, Stanley Tucci, Ciaran Hinds

Road To Perdition is a film that rises above mob movie cliches.    It is not simply about mobsters whacking each other for business or personal reasons, but about a father wishing to shield his son from a life he himself can not escape.   It is also about the old adage "there's family...and then there's family."  The Paul Newman character is forced to make a decision to kill his biological son or the man he loves "like a son".  Or in his world, have one or the other killed.  The choice isn't as easy as it may seem.

Directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty), Road To Perdition is a film with similarities to American Beauty, including a similar score and lots of rain.    Road To Perdition doesn't have intermittent showers, but torrential downpours.   We hope there were dry clothes and a lot of coffee nearby.   This is a beautiful looking movie, photographed by Conrad Hall, who won a posthumous Oscar for his work here.   Even the scenes without rain are shadowy and menacing, thanks in large part to Hall's work.  It underscores everything.  The look is gloomy even if the action is not.  

We are so engrossed by the drama that we forget Road To Perdition is without much comic relief.     Unlike American Beauty, which played like satire, Road To Perdition is deadly serious.     It opens in rural Illinois in the winter of 1931, an area ruled by Irish mob kingpin John Rooney (Newman), whom Mike Sullivan (Hanks) works for.    Sullivan is a hitman mostly, but tries his best to conceal this information from his sons.    This does not dissuade their curiosity.    "Do you know what Dad actually does when he goes on missions for Mr. Rooney?", Sullivan's youngest son asks his older brother Michael (Hoechlin).    Michael, who feels distant from his father, decides to find out and stows away in his father's car when he treks out on one of his "missions".   

Michael witnesses mob killings, perpetrated by Rooney's son Connor (Craig), who thinks he will take over the family business one day.     Michael's father thinks his son won't talk, but the Rooneys aren't quite so sure.    Soon, Connor kills Sullivan's wife and younger son, forcing father and son to flee, unable even to be present at the funeral of his family.     While on the road and desperately trying to find Connor (who is under protection not only by his father but the Capone family in Chicago), Michael and his son bond.    There aren't any wordy speeches or declarations of love, but small, touching moments in which each is able to finally understand the other.     We learn the father's distance and coldness were an attempt to shield his family from his job.   

There are inner conflicts as well.    Sullivan feels betrayed by Rooney, whom he viewed as a father and almost worshipful at that.   Rooney, understanding he has to allow for Sullivan to be killed, says, "God help me," in sheer agony.   We understand the nature of their relationship which ultimately has to be sacrificed.     The key scene between the two occurs later, when Rooney tells Michael in no uncertain terms that his loyalty is with his son.    "There are only murderers in this room.  One thing is for sure, none of us will ever see heaven," Rooney says. "Michael can," responds Sullivan, as if it would matter.  

Road To Perdition is rarely less than gripping.   Tom Hanks may not seem like the actor to play a cold mob enforcer, but he is subdued, conflicted, and identifiable even as we don't approve of his profession.    He hates his job, but does it out of loyalty to Rooney.    It is quite a good performance, also because we sense there is a moral compass in him as he protects his son.    This was Newman's final on-screen role (and he received an Oscar nomination for his work).    He lends such gravity and power to his scenes that we don't realize he is not onscreen that much.     His presence occupies scenes he is not even in.    Also on hand is Jude Law as Maguire, who is hired to kill the Sullivans and sells photographs he takes of his past victims.     Law is effectively creepy.

The overall feeling the film conveys is coldness, not just temperature-wise, but within the characters themselves.    I read that the temperature dipped as low as -30 F during some of the scenes.    These characters have compartmentalized and rationalized so much that there is little joy in them.    Road To Perdition is the opposite end of the spectrum from Goodfellas, where the mobsters loved being in the mob.     People like Mike Sullivan probably wish they had sales jobs instead.