Road to Perdition

Director Sam Mendes and cinematographer Conrad follow their American Beauty Oscar coup with this brooding tale of father-son relationships, sins passed from generation to generation, and redemption. Mustachioed Tom Hanks stars as prohibition-era hitman Michael Sullivan. After his 12-year-old son (Tyler Hoechlin) witnesses a gangland killing, Sullivan and his kid are targeted for murder by the biological son of Sullivan’s surrogate father and mob boss Rooney (Paul Newman). The title and morals of the story stretch to biblical proportions as Rooney plays both God and godfather (he “giveth and taketh away”) to his underlings, and Sullivan attempts to find sanctuary for his boy as a crime photographer/assassin (Jude Law) stalks them. Hanks and Newman are the personification of anguish and torn loyalty in a gripping, violent film that is part character study and part cat-and-mouse chase with classic western embellishments. Adapted by David Self (Thirteen Days) from the 1998 novel by Dick Tracy comic-strip writer Max Allan Collins and illustrator Richard Piers Rayner.