Road to PerditionDirected by Sam MendesStarring: Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Tyler Hoechlin, Jennifer Jason LeighRoad to Perdition: Movie A-, DVD B- I really liked this movie. I have heard some mixed reviews saying it is lacking a little emotionally. I can see how people would say that, but what really worked for me on that level was the relationship between the Tom Hanks character and his son. It would have been nice to see a little for development of the main character, I think this would have drawn people in even more. The performances all around were excellent. I was really into Tom Hanks' performance. I have heard some people say Tom Hanks as a hit man is still Tom Hanks, but I have to disagree. I am not particularlly a fan of Tom Hanks, I like him, but I don't neccessarily make a point of seeing his movies. His performance in Road to Perdition is probably my favorite of his to date. The performance was pretty subtle. Much of the film called for his character to be stern and unemotional due to the nature of his "work." This allowed for some very moving scenes, when he did allow his feelings to come through. My favorite scene in the film was when his son asked him why he appeared to love his other son more. The scene was very genuine. It was not over emotional and came across perfectly. Paul Newman was great as the adoptive father of Hanks. I would have liked to have seen a little more of him. It would have been nice to really get to know these characters, and to know how they had gotten to the point they were at. This was probably the point of the movie though. The perspective was mostly from the young son's point of view and he did not really know much about his father's life. The son never passed judgement on his father, and it is difficult for the audience to as well. It is clear that Mike Sullivan leads a bad life, he kills people for a living. It is hard though, not to feel sorry for him, even though he is the one who is ultimately responsible for his wife and son's death. I don't think the movie was trying to say that we should feel nothing but sympathy for him. It was more just telling the vision of a father from a son's point of view. There is one fairly minor aspect of the movie I didn't care for, and that is the character played by Jude Law. There was nothing wrong with Law's performance, I just didn't think the character fit the rest of the movie. I don't think a character that is a psychopath and actually gets off on killing people would be hired by the mafia. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't really know that much about the mafia. It seems like from what I do know (and I admit it's mostly from movies) killing other members involved in organized crime is just a part of the "business." Law's character's motivation had nothing to do with that. He just liked taking pictures of dead people. This is just a minor point, it didn't hurt my appreciation for the movie. I did like the scene between him and Hanks at the diner. The relationship between the father and son that slowly builds throughout the movie was the best aspect of this movie for me. The senior Mike Sullivan not wanting his son to follow in his footsteps draws a parallel to the feelings he must have had for his adoptive father. Maybe part of him (or even all of him) wished he had been protected from the lifestyle instead of brought into it. It was interesting to see a character change from barely noticing his son, to doing everything to protect him. In the end you could say both the father and son ended up where they deserved to be. The DVD features include several deleted scenes, a making of featurette and commentary from director Sam Mendes. There are also production notes and a still gallery. I have to admit I was disappointed in the deleted scenes. I had read how good they were, but they were mostly just expanded versions of existing scenes from the movie. None of them would have made much of difference, for the worse or better to the movie, including the cut (very brief) Al Capone scene with Anthony LaPaglia. The making of documentary is just an EPK piece that showed on HBO (I have read that this is not on the DTS version of the DVD). I'm not fond of these, because they mostly consist of clip from the movie (that I just watched) and the cast commenting on how great it was to work with the director. This one is no exception and offered almost no behind the scenes footage or any information on the making of the movie. You'll have to stick with the solo commentary from the director which can be a little dry, but informative. Review by Sherry |
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