Continuing with Tom Hanks� current trend for movies aimed at a more adult audience, Road to Perdition has been hailed as the best gangster flick since The Godfather. True it is a piece of quality cinema, showcasing some of the best on and off-screen talent around to produce a slick, period thriller. However some things do not quite ring true.
This is a simple revenge tale with a lengthy and complicated scenario about a man on a mission. Hanks plays the father of a family he rarely speaks to on a personal level, preferring to rule his household with a silent iron fist. This is soon made clear by the job he hides from his children, as a debt collector, hit man, and all-round bruiser for his gang-lord boss (Newman) who controls the community with his unstable, trigger-happy son. A routine job goes horribly wrong, when the same son goes awry and kills everyone in the room apart from an irate Hanks. They both find out that Hanks� curious eldest son has been watching the horrific scene, thus making a bad situation worse. The psycho sibling, jealous over his father�s favouritism to Hanks, murders the family apart from the eldest son. Now the father and son set out on a mission to see �justice� done, whilst hiding from an assassin (Law) sent to take them both out.
The acting from Hanks, Newman, and especially Law is superb, as you would expect. The relationship between Newman and Hanks as the son he wishes he had is mesmerising to watch. The story starts deliberately slow, bringing the audience into this world and its characters, setting the scene well before the real story kicks off. Photography, soundtrack etc is executed well, and you�d think this is the perfect movie. Unfortunately, the story just seems too predictable, and the ending, while satisfying in some way, just makes you think �yeah, I thought that was going to happen from half-way through the damn movie!� .
I consider Tom Hanks to be one of the worlds greatest ever actors, but I just cant get used to him in this role as a hardened criminal and killer, it just doesn�t seem natural for the audience to see him in this way. The story itself also has its flaws, the whole montage of the bank robbing scenes by father and son, is in itself humourous and entertaining, but it doesn�t sit well within the totally serious movie around it. Okay, it may well be a welcome break from the serious tone and mood of the movie, but it just seems like an idea not thought through fully. That said, it is still an impressive movie that stands head and shoulders above most other releases of 2002 in terms of quality. |
