This impressive, uncompromising work is many things - a period crime film, a dark meditation on the relationships between fathers and sons and, of course, a road movie - but it succeeds mostly as a haunting allegory about dying. The journey here is life and, no matter what route or turns one might take, it leads to the same conclusion, the same end.
Mendes and his brilliant cinematographer, Conrad Hall, both of whom won Oscars in 1999 for "American Beauty," bring a fiercely handsome, funereal quality to their collaboration this time out, a quality that would make their film striking no matter when it was released but makes it particularly auspicious smack in the midst of summer-movie escapism. But "Road to Perdition" also represents a kind of escapism - one for mature, adventurous audiences who want to be transported not only to another time and place, but also to another level of thought and perception. It invites us to see the familiar - those crime films, father-son sagas and road movies - in a decidedly different way, one that's bleaker but not necessarily unpleasant. The film is quiet, threatening and unforgettable.
For Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks, reinventing himself for the screen once again) and his son, Michael Jr. (newcomer Tyler Hoechlin), the road they are traveling will take them to relatives who live in Perdition, a small town somewhere in rural Illinois where Sullivan plans on depositing Michael Jr. - hopefully for a better life. But Sullivan himself is on the road to perdition in the literal sense. A cold-blooded hit man operating in 1931, at the height of the Depression, Sullivan is in the throes of his final spiritual ruin. He's on the road to damnation and he's hoping, perhaps, to regain his soul along the way. It is telling, therefore, that this film would open with a wake. The life being celebrated is a man who somehow had connections to John Rooney (Paul Newman), a shady Chicago fixture who employs Sullivan and also serves as his father figure. Sullivan, an orphan, was raised and groomed by Rooney for his vague business, much to the chagrin of Rooney's own son, the hopeless Connor (Daniel Craig). The funeral doesn't go well. A relative of the deceased makes a fuss, hurling some accusations at Rooney who, in turn, orders Sullivan and Connor to take the man aside the next day and "talk" to him.
Up to this point, Michael Jr., who is not as close to his father as his younger brother is, gets curious about his dad's mysterious job. He stows away in his father's car when Sullivan and Connor go off to do business, and when Connor loses control and shoots the man he and Sullivan were simply supposed to talk to, Michael Jr. witnesses it. It's a rude awakening for the boy, but also, suddenly, everything makes sense about his father's distant, stoic ways. His dad kills people. When Sullivan realizes what Michael Jr. has witnessed, he makes matters worse by swearing the boy to secrecy to protect the undeserving Rooney.
Their trip to Perdition is precipitated when Rooney puts out a hit on his supposedly beloved surrogate son, Sullivan - and when Connor goes to Sullivan's house and mistakenly kills Michael Jr.'s brother as well as Sullivan's wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh). The sequence in which Sullivan realizes what is happening - that Rooney wants him rubbed out - is a model of subtlety and nuance, horrific in a quiet, truly troubling way. Hanks - whose acting style throughout is to do as little as possible - in incomparable in this scene.
Sullivan's plan is to take Michael Jr. to their family in Perdition and then go off and settle the score with Rooney for his vicious betrayal. But along the way, he has to stop off to confer with Frank Nitti (Stanley Tucci), who oversees operations for honcho crime boss Al Capone, under whom Rooney and his Irish mob work. Sullivan needs Capone's backing to move ahead and, using the impressive work he's done for Rooney as leverage, he even offers to do hits for Capone in return for the favor. But Sullivan learns he can trust no one - and that his personal plight is putting his sole surviving child in jeopardy - as he becomes aware that the mob has put another hit man on his trail, one posing as a crime-scene photographer (Jude Law in a truly creepy, memorable turn). An overwhelming sense of fatalism permeates this movie. It is what sets it apart from other mob-and-family works such as Francis Ford Coppola's big-screen "The Godfather" saga and David Chase's small-screen "The Sopranos" series.
Michael Sullivan is at the point of no return at the very start of the film, having lost everything, including his soul - everything, that is, except Michael Jr. But something good comes out of their dread-filled trip: They bond - and, for better or worse, Michael Jr. finally gets to know his father and musters up a grudging respect for him.
You won't find acting much better than the performances turned in here by Hanks, Hoechlin, Newman, Law and Craig - acting that's as bruised as the dark browns, grays, reds and greens that color the film's visuals. I know that it's about six months premature to make such a declaration, but "Road to Perdition" is the best film of the year.
