Road to Perdition 2002
This movie with Tom Hanks and Paul Newman and directed by Sam Mendes of American Beauty got a lot of attention when it was released. I didn’t know much about it other than Tom Hanks was a hit man, there was a father and son story, and a lot of gangsters in the 30’s.
The movie feels kind of like a prequel of The Godfather even though I’ve never seen that one. Instead of Italians the mafia is Irish and instead of New York it’s the area of the country around Chicago during the Depression. This isn’t a big shoot ‘em up though there is plenty of carnage to go around. It is more of a portrait of a few people caught up in organized crime as viewed through the young son who has no idea he’s in the mob when the movie starts.
It’s a good movie with strong but quiet performances by just about everyone. While I respect that, it’s also kind of boring. The story moves along well enough, but it just seems to take a while to play out. I blame the director because, looking back, there was a lot that happened. It’s still a good movie, but I think it falls short of classics like The Godfather.
I’ll give it a B.