Paul Newman and Tom Hanks star in Sam Mendes’s “Road to Perdition.”
Perhaps
because it constitutes just about the only adult movie (in the old sense of the
term) of the summer so far, Sam Mendes’s Road
to Perdition has provoked almost as many raves as his previous hit, the
wildly overpraised American Beauty.
Mendes shares with Paul Thomas Anderson, director of Boogie Nights and Magnolia,
just the sort of mannered pretension and hollow profundity that many reviewers
mistake for art, which therefore pretty much guarantees his critical success.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Although this film represents a
considerable departure in subject, style, and tone from American Beauty, it labors under a similar burden of Deep Thoughts
and Big Ideas and thus provokes an inordinate amount of heavy breathing in the
media.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย A cluster of incongruities surrounds
the picture, including its basis in a graphic novel, its unusual casting, and
its reliance on quite another formula from the ones that propelled American Beauty. Instead of repeating or
extending his cinematic elaboration of something like a John Cheever short
story of bourgeois angst and suburban
infidelity, the new movie, commendably, represents yet another example of that
honored and venerable form, the gangster film, a significant genre in this
country.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย This time around, further, the
director hits upon the brilliant notion of employing a live narrator (as
opposed to the deceased Kevin Spacey character of his last flick). That
narrator, a young boy named Michael Sullivan, Jr. (Taylor Hoechlin), tells the
story of a terrible period in his childhood back in 1931, when he experienced a
violent and tragic initiation into such adult realities as suffering, sorrow,
and loss.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The boy’s father, Michael Sullivan
(Tom Hanks) lives with his two sons, young Michael and his little brother
Peter, and his wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh) in a comfortable house, drives a
good car, and supports his family on his earnings as a hit man for a prosperous
gangster named John Rooney (Paul Newman). The boy learns the truth of his
father’s profession when he hides in his car and spies on a bloody
confrontation in which the boss’s son, Connor Rooney (Daniel Craig), kills
another member of the gang. Connor, the sort of necessary psychopath who
appears in most gangster movies, fears that young Michael will squeal, so he
naturally decides to kill him and the whole Sullivan family, a plan at which he
only partially succeeds.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Once the movie establishes that
situation and its attendant dangers, it settles into its real plot, the slow
progress of the two Michael Sullivans on a long, dangerous journey of vengeance
and, paradoxically, understanding. The father must protect his son from the
Rooneys, while at the same time working out a way to revenge himself upon them;
because John Rooney, who has himself been a kind of father to Michael and
grandfather to his children, must defend his own flesh and blood, the conflict
intensifies the complications of that conventional gangster flick theme,
familial loyalty. Through the course of their travels, young Michael learns the
depth of his father’s love for him and something of the code he lives by.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Along with those traditional themes
of blood ties, loyalty, betrayal, and revenge, the movie reflects its form’s
concern with an implacable fate. As John Rooney tells Michael Sullivan in a
final encounter, once they choose their way in life, nothing can change, and
nothing is sure except that none of them will go to Heaven. The film’s title, Road to Perdition, describes both
Michael’s efforts to bring his son to safety in a town of that name and also,
of course, the ineluctable direction his life must take, an end he cannot
escape.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย One of the greatest single problems
in this decidedly mixed bag of a picture results from the odd and, frankly,
misguided casting of Tom Hanks. Pale, pudgy, and utterly passive, with a
permanent stubble and a pathetic little failure of a mustache, he makes a most
unlikely gangster — there seems no threat, no menace, no danger, no violence
in this sad, lumpish, worried little man. As in his awful work in the awful Philadelphia or the even worse Green Mile, Hanks once again shows that
his great strength really lies in comic or light romantic parts — A League of Their Own, Sleepless in Seattle, Joe Versus the Volcano, etc. — in
which he sparkles with wit and fun. Despite the score of corpses he leaves in
his wake, this man is no killer.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Unfortunately, Hanks also must
appear in several scenes with Paul Newman, who simply acts him right off the
screen. With his careful choice of words, his thoughtful composure, his air of
sad and specious regret, his Irish charm, he makes us actually like John
Rooney, a very bad man but also a most sympathetic figure. Stanley Tucci plays
the famous gangster Frank Nitti with an understated and faintly ironic
exactness and Jude Law, of all people, appears as a newspaper photographer
specializing in corpses who moonlights as a hired killer (or maybe it’s the
other way around).
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Despite the potential fascination of
its subjects and themes, much of the film moves so slowly that its road seems
very long indeed. Although it employs many of the conventions of its genre —
the Catholic iconography, the neo-Cubist emphasis on the squared-off
silhouettes of men in hats and suits and long overcoats, the machinery of
telephones, rectangular automobiles, and Tommy guns — it lacks the pace,
pulse, and efficiency of the1930s flicks it copies.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Although of course filmed in color,
in both interiors and exteriors Road to
Perdition certainly looks as dark as any of those old black-and-white
flicks, and in this interpretation of a famous Dust Bowl year, it pours down
rain almost all the time. The circuitous and dangerous Road to Perdition turns out after all to be long, dark, and wet.
Road to Perdition, starring Tom Hanks, Tyler
Hoechlin, Paul Newman, Daniel Craig, Jude Law, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Stanley
Tucci, Dylan Baker, Liam Aiken, Ciarร n Hinds, Dough Sinuzza, Kevin Chamberlin;
based upon the graphic novel by Max Allan Collins; screenplay by David Self;
directed by Sam Mendes.
This article appears in Jul 10-16, 2002.
