|
 |
|
Road to Perdition
***1/2
Cinema Releases - September 27, 2002
Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate 15. USA.
117 minutes. Directed by Sam Mendes. Written by David Self; from the graphic
novel by Max Allan Collins, Richard Piers Rayner. Starring Tom Hanks, Paul
Newman, Tyler Hoechlin, Jude Law, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Stanley Tucci, Daniel
Craig, Liam Aiken, Ciaran Hinds.
"Road to Perdition" is so well made
that you cannot help be conscious of the production values, in and of themselves.
Thomas Newman's score has a constant yearning beauty to it, and Conrad Hall's
rich cinematography makes every image tower in perfect composition: piercing
whites and deep, sumptuous browns let us know that the film has been made
with the intention of looking like a classic.
There are two ways to approach this. The first
is to claim that the movie is trying too hard, to say that it is an affected
dressing-up of a simple story, as contrived in its construction as "Heaven's
Gate". The second, which I'm going with, would be to say that this is an
expert piece of craftsmanship, and we should be grateful rather than cautious.
Perhaps the director, Sam Mendes, really is drunk from his success with "American
Beauty", and has decided to chase after another Oscar by making a piece that
flaunts its prestige. But he's done so in a way that's absorbing. Whether
"Road to Perdition" is trying too hard or not, the point to stay focused
on is that it happens to be a very good film.
Tom Hanks stars as a Depression-era hitman who
works outside of Chicago for a grand local crime boss played by Paul Newman.
The older man took Hanks in when he was a boy, and has raised him to be loyal
and true, in return for his job and the love of a father. Newman has his
own son, though, a lesser gangster played by Daniel Craig who in one early
scene goes over the edge and kills an employee when a few strong words were
all that was required.
Another son is in centre stage: Hanks's boy, a
young high school student played by Tyler Hoechlin, who witnesses the unnecessary
murder and gets a sharp shock as to the profession of his father and family
friends. "Can he keep a secret?" asks Craig. "He's my son," replies
Hanks.
In the panic that follows, events occur which
see the rest of Hanks's family killed and he and his surviving son on the
run. Hanks wants to bring his child to safely, and also wants vengeance on
Craig, whose actions and stupid attempts to repair them have caused all the
mess. From this point, we know certain things must happen: There will be
a confrontation between Hanks and Newman, in which they will talk frankly
about the loyalties they're obliged to protect and the hard choices they
must make. We will see a stronger bond form between Hanks and his son, as
the killer reveals his tender side and does what he must to stand up for
the things he holds dear. And there will be a tragic bloodbath, followed
by a sombre conclusion from Hoechlin, whose voice-over narration bookends
the story.
"Road to Perdition" is based on the graphic novel
by Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner, and like a good piece of pulp
fiction, it explores hard-boiled facets such as crime, revenge and complex
loyalties through a style of colour, creativity and force. The movie works
not because the story is unpredictable or because it features characters
whose type we've never seen before, but because it takes familiar elements
and allows itself the dramatic pauses and leisurely establishing shots that
are necessary to explore their auras. Mendes knows what he's doing with his
use of overly opulent technical credits; he makes his film perfect to look
at and listen to so that it summons an abundance of atmosphere, and we can
fully absorb the sadness and sin that inhabits the movie's rooms and looms
around its characters.
Hanks, having already well established his transition
from comedy to drama, is now taking another step, into the role of a tortured
and morally ambiguous character. He does an excellent job, not speaking a
full sentence for his first half hour of screen time but communicating all
the while. He is distant, carrying around a sad weariness, as if he has had
to strip himself down to nothing but professionalism. The character is less
a man than a vessel who can enjoy only simple pleasures. When forced to bring
to the surface his underlying love for his son, it's touching to hear even
the most basic tones of intimacy. Hanks has the knack to recognise that;
he doesn't drift into sentimentality.
Newman towers over the spaces he inhabits, his
status as a screen legend not detracting from his performance so much as
gelling with it. "You rule this town like God rules over the earth," declares
one character, and indeed Newman does not need grand gestures to exude might
and experience with his face or use the weight of his voice to establish
command. He's still lean and striking, too, and can flash that charming smile,
as his character ingratiates himself with his subjects in the manner of a
grandfather.
Daniel Craig, who wowed me with the complexity
of his work in the otherwise unremarkable "Some Voices", shows that he can
give a simple Cain performance, and does a professional job of seeming bitter,
spoilt and just that bit too reckless. Jude Law plays the hitman hired to
take care of Hanks, a man with rotten teeth and a glint in his eye, who likes
to take pictures of his victims. It's a stylish performance as a comic-book
villain, the kind of scumbag we would expect to see hanging around the corners
of a very demented Jack the Ripper movie.
Mendes, however, is the man who most interests
me. His handling of "American Beauty" was beautiful in its tone, turning
a script that could have seemed as systematic as a sitcom into a profound
balance of perversion and laughter. With "Road to Perdition", the director
again takes a story with a certain degree of simplicity and infuses it with
style. I like both films, but can't help wondering what could happen if Mendes
got hold of a script that makes heads spin. Here's a guy who could turn out
nothing but classics if he chose to take such a plunge.
COPYRIGHT©
2002 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
2002 Reviews
(alphabetical)
2002 Reviews (by star
rating)
Archive of all cinema reviews
(alphabetical)
Review Archive
Index
UK
Critic main page
|
|
![[Image]](http://www.ukcritic.com/posbanr2.gif)