Road to Perdition

Road to Perdition is another film with my favorite theme. As Lord Vetinari used to say, if we can't eradicate crime, at least make it organized. The film had a great atmosphere, Tom Hanks' performance was excellent as usual, Jude Law was as pleasant as a bucket of slime and Paul Newman gave as fine a performance as Tom Hanks, as expected. I have only two gripes. It was crystal clear how it was going to end. I’m also not sure how it was possible that after the bullet hit the window, blood splattered the glass, but the projectile somehow mysteriously disappeared. (21/07/2017)

Or: How Even the Most Direct Road to Perdition Can Lead to Movie Perfection. A visually indescribably atmospheric watch. Precise acting, perfect camerawork and faultless and inventive directing. Sam Mendes filmed so far the most faithful adaptation of a comic book to come to the movie screen so far. Although the storyline is simple, that’s where its strength lies. It could be criticized for being a wonderful shiny load of nothing about father and son finding a way to each other, but that’s not the feeling I get from this. Quite the contrary, for one thing, the scene in the rain is now in my top ten best scenes ever. It just has everything. From emotions, through marvelous production design, immense atmosphere to the actors. And the entire movie is like that, just perhaps not so intense all the while. And that’s pretty good, don’t you think? (04/02/2007)

Road to Perdition is a very nice film with excellent acting and cinematography. But that’s where the praise ends. In order for it to be a gangster flick on the level of Coppola’s The Godfather, it would have had to focus more attention on the relationship between Paul Newman and Tom Hanks. And no humor should have intruded on the gloomy atmosphere. As it is, it’s more like Eastwood’s A Perfect World, scented with the perfume of American Beauty and ending with an overwrought climax. And the formulaic nature of the plot doesn’t do it any favours either. The phrase “he was my father” was on the tip of my tongue before young Sullivan even said it. (13/11/2002)

Thanks to Mendes, this atmospheric gangster movie is quite untraditional (for the genre, not for Sam) in terms of visuals and is more colorful than usual. Sort of unusually “beautiful", but still dark. Excellent acting and that revolting creature Jude Law got that trick with the coin down to a T. Road to Perdition has several extraordinary scenes, but Thompson in the rain is enough to give you a heart attack. (07/01/2012)

This is comic book taking another beating. But I don't want to start with the negatives: Road to Perdition is an excellently shot film with Newman's successful music, which appropriately supports the melancholic cinematography, and which, when added together, makes for a truly dense atmosphere. Sam Mendes has traditionally been able to nicely handle conversation and action scenes (the shootout in the room is something else - I'm looking forward to Skyfall), and the actors who have come together here are all excellent and do a really good job (I even took seriously the gangster played by Tom) and... And that's where the pros end. The biggest downside is... You guessed right... The script. I wonder why filmmakers keep doing this, but even this time they only took certain things from the comics (the opening 30 minutes or so and the bank robbery), twisted or threw away the rest and added their own ideas. And what ideas those were! Like the killer Maguire - sorry Jude, he's brilliantly acted, really, but completely unnecessary. Or the farmer and his wife, the stay with them and the silly epilogue that goes with it. Bleh. And so on. It’s too bad, because such a solid gangster atmosphere shouldn't be wasted. I give three and a half stars to this. (21/02/2011)