Road To Perdition (2002)

"Two Thumbs Up!  Roger Ebert & Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper
"Two thumbs up!  Siskel & Ebert
"A Triumph!  Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
"...a lean and deadly performance, one of Hanks' best...  Kenneth Turan, L.A. Times

Editor's Note Directed by Sam Mendes and based on the graphic novel by Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner, the Depression-era crime epic ROAD TO PERDITION stars Tom Hanks as Michael Sullivan, a quiet hit man who is duty bound to Mafia boss John Rooney (Paul Newman). The mobster's close bond with Sullivan, however, leads Rooney's jealous blood son, Connor (Daniel Craig), to orchestrate a tragic series of events that results in Sullivan on the run with his 12-year-old son, Michael Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin). Soon an unscrupulous crime photographer/assassin named Maguire (Jude Law) is sent after Sullivan and his son, and Sullivan must decide on a course of action as young Michael comes to terms with his father's violent way of life. Meticulously directed by Mendes and brilliantly photographed by Conrad Hall, each scene of ROAD TO PERDITION has the composition of an expertly crafted painting. Making effective use of rain, snow, and shadows, the filmmakers create a cinematic world that's as dark, cold, and unforgiving as many of its inhabitants. But the film also allows for glimpses of emotional warmth, particularly in Sullivan's relationships with his son and Rooney, his surrogate father. In these roles, the respective actors create complex characters that resonate even in their restraint. Hanks is outstanding as a man of action with little time for words, while Hoechlin creates an unsentimental portrait of a confused boy; Newman once again proves why he's a screen legend and, in a strikingly unflattering role, Law makes the most out of his screen time as a creepy, parasitic hit man. Even in its harshest moments, however, Mendes never fails to remind the audience that ROAD TO PERDITION is a film about fathers and sons; and this is what elevates it from an atmospheric gangster movie to a truly astonishing work of art.

	Tom Hanks
	Tyler Hoechlin
	Rob Maxey
	Jennifer Jason Leigh
	Liam Aiken
	Paul Newman
	Richard Piers Rayner - Based On Novel By
	Max Allan Collins - Based On Novel By
	Conrad Hall - Cinematographer
	Sam Mendes - Director
	Jill Bilcock - Editor
	Walter Parkes - Executive Producer
	Joan Bradshaw - Executive Producer
	John Williams - Musical Score
	Sam Mendes - Producer
	Dennis Gassner - Production Designer

Los Angeles Times
"...Because it is so careful with its effects, this film's ability to create feeling sneaks up and surprises....This is a story with a will to move us and the ability to do whatever it takes to make that happen..." 07/12/2002 p.C1

New York Times
"...A truly majestic visual poem....Mr. Hanks does a powerful job..." 07/12/2002 p.E1

Rolling Stone
"...ROAD TO PERDITION has the juice to get its hooks into you, knock you off balance and keep you that way for two hours. It's a triumph for director Sam Mendes..." 08/08/2002 p.84

Premiere
"...[Law] helps bring this dark, strange, and ultimately moving film into disturbing places of the sort that most studio movies can't even imagine, let alone depict..." 08/01/2002 p.24-5

Chicago Sun-Times
"...Beautifully made, well-acted, brilliantly photographed..." 07/28/2002 p.5

Total Film
"...There's inventiveness, intelligence, even brilliance here..." 10/01/2002 p.122

Entertainment Weekly
"...Hanks and Newman are radiant with the blessings of unstopped talent, two greats from two generations who each understand the power of underplaying..." 07/19/2002 p.44-5

Empire
3 stars out of 5 -- "[The film] pulls off the nifty trick of being both impressively epic and movingly intimate." 06/01/2010

USA Today 7 of 10
Impressive yet always self-conscious, Perdition has more class and less sass than any movie in a while. Its virtues merely begin with Conrad L. Hall's cinematography and state-of-the-art production design, which fully convince us we're in 1931 Illinois, where the exteriors are as gloomy as the indoor settings. - Mike Clark