The Road to Perdition: Movie Review (2008)

Directed by Sam Mendes, written by David Self, 119 minutes, rated R.

(Originally published 2002)

As you might expect, any road that leads to perdition—a pretty word for hell—is going to have its share of bumps, twists and turns that dip more often than they lift, scenic side streets that either end abruptly or open into a gloaming.

Sam Mendes’ stylish, Depression-era drama “Road to Perdition” is a case in point.

The film, from a script David Self based on a graphic novel by Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner, is a seductive, brooding examination of the sometimes tumultuous, often complex relationships shared between fathers and sons.

Shot by the Academy Award-winning cinematographer Conrad L. Hall, who creates here a tight, claustrophobic atmosphere that brilliantly reflects the overwhelming oppression felt by each character, the movie reveals its theme early on: “Sons are put on earth to trouble their fathers.”

In this film, the opposite also is true.

Set in 1931 Chicago, “Road to Perdition” is the story of Irish-American mobsters who take their jobs as seriously as they take their commitments to their families. They’re cold-blooded murderers, for sure, but they’re well-scrubbed, upper-middle-class cold-blooded murderers, churchgoing folk who are as handy with a rosary as they are with an automatic submachine gun.

Comparisons to “The Godfather” come easy, but as the story unfolds, so do comparisons to the Kennedys, “Dick Tracy,” “The Lone Ranger,” Greek tragedies and Shakespeare. The film’s soul rests with Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks), a mob lieutenant and World War I hero who works for Al Capone through mob chief John Rooney (Paul Newman), a father-figure to Michael who loves him like a son.

With Hanks in the lead, it’s easy to believe that Sullivan was once a good man, but now, after years of rationalizing the road he took in an effort to feed, clothe and protect his family, there’s something dead about him, a disappointment in himself that shows in his eyes.

When Michael’s own 12-year-old son, Michael Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin), learns the truth about what his father does, hiding in the back seat of a car and witnessing Sullivan murder a man with the help of Rooney’s son, Connor (Daniel Craig), the film takes its inevitable turn as everyone’s life collapses in the sudden loss of Michael Jr.’s innocence.

Indeed, fearing Michael Jr. will talk, Connor launches a bloody series of events that can’t be revealed here, but which find Michael and Michael Jr. hitting the road in an effort to exact their revenge while somehow protecting Michael Jr.’s purity and keeping one step ahead of a hit man played to perfection by Jude Law.

There is so much to enjoy in “Road to Perdition,” its easy to forgive its ending, which offers no surprise, and its ultimate lack of emotion, which does come as a surprise. Framed to look like the comic book on which it's based, the film is a smashing example of Hollywood showmanship, a beautifully acted, gorgeous-looking movie for adults that follows Mendes’ last film, “American Beauty,” in peeling away and exposing another layer of the American experience.


Grade: A-