Saturday, December 19, 2009

Movies I liked in the 2000's: Road to Perdition

A meditation on the consequences of living a violent life... featuring Tom Hanks?



This is everything Public Enemies could have been.  Normally I can't stand Tom Hanks, but he plays so far against type here that it just works.  Paul Newman and Daniel Craig also turn in great performances.  However, in my opinion, the best part of this movie is the Hopper-esque cinematography by Conrad Hall. Seriously, even if you don't like the story, the acting, the accents, or anything else about the film, its worth seeing for the visuals alone.

As you can probably guess, the film is a bit pretentious in spots. But it feels more like the cast and crew making use of their immense talent than just being pretentious for pretentious sake. Despite the pretension, Road to Perdition has quite the emotional core. The developing relationship between Michael Sullivan (played by Hanks) and his son is one of the most emotionally engrossing things I've seen committed to film.

Really, this was underrated when it came out and it remains so now.  If you like gangster movies or dislike happy, cheery Tom Hanks, check this out.

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