'Road to Perdition' might pave way to Oscars

By Marshall Fine
The (Westchester, N.Y.) Journal News

ROAD TO PERDITION: (Rated R for profanity, graphic violence, nudity) Four Stars (Excellent) A powerful and compelling gangster story set in Prohibition-era Chicago, about a hired killer who seeks vengeance from his employer when his family is killed. Starring Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law. Directed by Sam Mendes. DreamWorks Pictures, 140 minutes.

Directed by Sam Mendes from a script by David Self, it is tough and uncompromising, tense and thought provoking as it meditates on the nature of that unbreakable bond between father and son. It explores that theme in a variety of ways, even as it tells a story that is viscerally exciting without being flashy or flamboyant.

Rather, Mendes, who won an Oscar for his first film, "American Beauty," and cinematographer Conrad Hall (who won an Oscar for the same film) depict the Chicago of the 1930s and its surrounding environs with earth tones and darker colors.

"Road to Perdition" stars Tom Hanks as Michael Sullivan, first glimpsed as a family man, adored by his two sons and his doting wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh). But, as his older son Michael Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin) notes, his father also carries a gun to work and is very mysterious about what he does in the employ of the expansively friendly Mr. Rooney (Paul Newman).

Rooney, as it turns out, is head of an Irish mob that operates under the Capone gang. And Michael Sullivan Sr., an orphan who was raised by Rooney like a son, is Rooney's most trusted and deadly employee, a hit man with a professional's conscientiousness. None of that sits very well with Rooney's real son, Connor (Daniel Craig), who expresses his resentment in his recklessness on the job.

That recklessness sets the plot in motion when Rooney sends Connor and Sullivan to talk to an angry affiliate. Before Sullivan can stop him, Connor has killed the man and the pair is forced to gun down his associates as well.

But there's a witness to their deed — young Michael Jr., who hid in his father's car and followed him to decipher the mystery of what he does for a living. Sullivan swears Michael Jr. to silence, but Connor's convinced the kid represents a threat. He and his father set Sullivan up to be killed, even as Connor takes on the job of silencing Michael Jr. himself.

But Sullivan escapes the trap that Rooney has arranged. Michael Jr., meanwhile, isn't home when Connor arrives and Connor, inattentive to details as always, simply kills Sullivan's wife and younger son, assuming he's killing the right child. Knowing he has been betrayed, Sullivan grimly determines to have his revenge on Connor, though he has to keep Michael Jr. by his side for much of the mayhem.

The screenwriter has adapted what was a conventional gangster comic and turned it into a deeply felt tale of parent and child, vengeance and responsibility. Both Sullivan and his son carry a burden of guilt, each feeling that he is the one responsible for the death of the other half of their family. But it is Sullivan who suffers the most, watching the changes in the way his son looks at him, even as he contemplates the example he is setting and what it will mean to his son's future.

Much of that is unspoken, yet is plainly understood in the face and carriage of Hanks. Wearing a small, fuzzy mustache and clad in suits and starched white shirts, Hanks uses the brim of his fedora almost like a mask, though it can't hide the chilly killer look in his eyes. But Hanks gives much more, revealing the paternal instincts and the eternal regret that shape every action of his quest.

Hanks has a solid companion in Hoechlin as Michael Jr. It's not an eye-catching performance, but it is a competent one, capturing a pre-teen thrown unexpectedly into the adult world of life-and-death.

Paul Newman has the cuddly aspects of Rooney down perfect, swathing this crime boss in blarney and hiding his ruthlessness behind twinkly eyes. But he also finds Rooney's steely edge and the horror he feels at his own confusingly turbulent emotions toward Sullivan and Connor. Craig brings a particularly nasty air to the character, without missing his instinct toward sniveling.

And Jude Law, as a crime photographer with a sideline as a hired killer, brings a feral bloodlust tempered by sadistic playfulness to a character that wasn't in the original story.

It is a powerful, compelling film, the best movie so far this year. And "Road to Perdition" should easily have the staying power to be remembered at Oscar time.

Rated R for profanity, graphic violence, nudity.