*** (out of ****)
Starring Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law, Tyler Hoechlin, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Daniel Craig, and Stanley Tucci.
Directed by Sam Mendes, photographed by Conrad Hall, & written for the screen by David Self, from the graphic novel by Max Allen Collins
2002 R
“Road to Perdition” is like a cross-pollination of “Days of Heaven” (1978) and “L.A. Confidential” (1997). Like “L.A. Confidential,” “Perdition” uses the existing themes, relationships, and accoutrements of film noir and the gangster movie. Instead of adding to these elements, “Perdition” and “L.A. Confidential” focus on their characters with unusual depth and clarity. Like “Days of Heaven,” “Perdition” uses a storytelling strategy that largely abandons plot twists in favor of starkly-told, quintessential images, captured in gorgeous photography. The characters in both “Heaven” and “Perdition” are dwarfed and to an extent trapped by something much larger than themselves. In “Heaven,” the giant is the implacable and indifferent Texas farm country of the early 1900s, while in “Perdition” our heroes are caught within the code of organized crime.
Tom Hanks is a mob enforcer for Paul Newman in 1931. They aren’t father and son, but they act that way. That act is put to the test when Newman’s real son (Daniel Craig) goes out of control and turns the mob against Hanks. Soon Hanks is on the run, driving across the breathtaking countryside between New York and Chicago with his twelve-year-old son (Tyler Hoechlin, in a performance of uncommon subtly for a child actor). Their flight involves dodging a bow-legged hitman while trying to use a Chicago gang to avenge their slain family. The hitman, played by Jude Law, is ruthless and methodical, but not entirely cold. He has a slight warmth and sympathy for those he hunts but is completely unable, in the style of true psychopaths, to see anything he does as evil.
The relationship between Hanks and his boy is at least as crucial as their flight from the mob. Everything Hanks has done, it becomes clear, is for the sake of his family, even though he is completely alienated from them. He knows his son’s name but that’s about it, and in their journey they grow a little bit closer. Hanks is much closer to his pseudo-father Newman, although both men find out that their greatest loyalty is to their flesh-and-blood, and not to their business. Hanks plays his thug as a man who knows everything about the underworld but for whom this knowledge brings nothing in return. He navigates his dealings with the two gangs not with vigor and determination, but with resignation. This is what I must do, he seems to say, even though it will not bring me happiness. He is basically a decent man broken by the knowledge that what he has done with his life, despite his good intentions, was wrong.
“Road to Perdition” is elegantly directed by Oscar-winner Sam Mendes of “American Beauty,” alternating between breathtaking pastures and cityscapes, and the heavy glances and short conversations of men who feel their lives have been misled. There is a fair amount of violence in “Perdition;” it is not glorified, but instead treated as the waste that it is. This is certainly not an action movie. Oscar-winning cinematographer Conrad Hall gorgeously brings us this world of fedoras, rain, snow, and shadowy, smoke-filled rooms where mob bosses decide who lives and who dies. Hall’s work is complimented by the film’s stunning production design, including the Depression-era costumes and buildings. The shortcoming of “Perdition” is in its own simplicity. All of its characters are preordained to do what they must do, so much so that hardly anyone appears surprised right before they’re killed, and we are certainly seldom surprised by what comes next. It is a simple story, but also a largely predictable one, made more powerful by its high production values and the attention paid to the emotions of its characters.
A film can do worse than have “Days of Heaven” and “L.A. Confidential” in its ancestry, but “Perdition” is also based on a graphic novel (for the uninitiated that means one great big comic book) by Max Allan Collins. At the risk of generalizing, dark somber comics like “Perdition” and last year’s “From Hell” appeal to moody adolescent boys, who might find a warped but not uncommon solace in the portrayal of the world as choiceless and confining.
Finished July 13, 2002
Copyright 2002 Friday & Saturday Night