With all of the talent onboard, you'd think Road to Perdition would strive towards loftier goals. However, it seems content where it is. I suppose it does work as a gangster picture, but only in the sense that the men wear fedoras, the boys wear Jimmy McBean berets, and everyone wants everyone else dead. After that the film really has very little in common with the greats it is so erroneously being compared to (The Godfather or Goodfellas).
The real problem becomes how to breathe life into a script that treads ground that's been covered before. In one scene, the protagonist senses he's in trouble in a diner, so he (surprise, surprise) goes into the bathroom (see Michael Corleone for that patent). There's even one of those shots of the main character walking down a bustling, crowded city street (as in Tootsie or Midnight Cowboy, or take your pick of countless other pictures). In fact, very little is new here.
It stars Tom Hanks as Michael Sullivan, a henchman for hire by mob boss John Rooney, who is played by Paul Newman. On the eve of a hit, Sullivan's son Michael Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin) tags along to find out what his father's true profession is. After he witnesses the murder itself, the entire Sullivan family is put into jeopardy, including wife Annie (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and the youngest, Peter (Liam Aiken). What follows is a twist on the ostracized gangster story, with Stanley Tucci as Frank Nitti, the infamous Al Capone lackey, and Jude Law as a tensile hit man out to track down Sullivan. Daniel Craig plays John Rooney's unstable son, Connor.
Road to Perdition is the first film directed by Sam Mendes since the phenomenal American Beauty, which was a movie rich with colourful characters and dynamic performances. Here, the ensemble is a whitewash of energy, mustering random moments of tension only thanks to the screenplay itself. This is Hanks's least effective performance in years, going through the "Gradual Character Change" motions only because we are meant to like at least one person before the credits roll. Newman seems miscast in his boss roll, and even young actor Hoechlin brings a strange passivity to the unfolding events. The Untouchables this ain't.
Of all the misplaced elements at play here, there is no denying that the soundtrack is the overriding weak link. It is anachronistic and completely incongruous to the action in the story. Every time Mendes sets up an interesting technique or effect, Thomas Newman's score almost singlehandedly rides it off the rails. Still, Road to Perdition is coercive at points, and sometimes, it's fun to be manipulated. Particularly by grumpy thugs with big guns.
