Road to Perdition review by The Grim Ringler
Road to Perdition
So this movie has been out for an eternity and I should have reviewed it ages ago so I am just going to do a quickie review. Fact is, if you were gonna see this, you have. And if you haven’t, why the hell not? This is easily the most beautiful, thoughtful, sincere movie that has come out thus far this year, and mark my words, it will be up for a Best Picture nod next year. It is that good.
This is essentially a thoughtful examination of fatherhood and love, and is an intimate, if heartbreakingly cold, portrait of a father desperately trying to do right by his son.
Tom Hanks plays a mob hitman both feared and respected by all that know him, but when his son sees the death of a man and thus puts the entire family in peril, Hanks turns on those he has always served to protect his son, the only member of the family to survive a murder spree done by the son of Hanks’ boss. Hanks’ character, a cold, distant man that is almost faceless behind his tommy-gun, sets out to settle the score, no matter what, needing to find and kill the man that killed his family, no matter what the cost. But the farther he goes, and the more dangerous things get, the more he realizes how much peril he has put his family, and now son, in with his life, and that his surrogate father (played wonderfully by a tortured Paul Newman, who might get a Best-Supporting nod) is not who he should have modeled himself after.
I cannot rave enough about how beautiful this movie is, and director Sam Medes is really one of the premier young talents in Hollywood. There is a scene in it, a shootout on a side-street in the pouring rain, and it is completely silent and is so shocking and beautiful to see, it just makes your jaw drop. Aside from that, there really isn’t a bad performance in the film, though Hanks steals the show yet again. He is almost a mobster version of Eastwood’s Man With No Name, his focus so set on getting revenge, not even for himself as much as just to do it because it’s his duty. As if it is the only way he can prove this was his family. But the grief is there, in the silent looks he gives his son, in the way he sleepwalks through the violence, numb to it, numb to all but his revenge. But there is always an undying devotion and love for his son, and it is in those brief glances, and in his awkward way of including his son in everything by teaching him to drive the getaway car.
I cannot recommend this film more highly. It’s a rarity that such a strong, beautiful film pops up, and even more rare when it’s in the summer. I imagine it will be re-released this winter, before the Oscars, but you should see it now, and be thankful you did.
…c…
9 out of 10 Jackasses
