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A few years ago, my little hometown in Michigan was thrown into an uproar. Two movies were being filmed in town that summer -- American Pie 2 (I saw that one, too -- check out the review) and Road to Perdition. Tom Hanks was even spotted at the local movie theater (and someone who spotted him was interviewed for the local paper). It was more excitement than the town had seen in a long time. Road to Perdition was being filmed in a house on Lake Michigan, so my friends and I got in a boat and went to check it out.
It was just a given, then, that I’d have to see this movie when it came out -- it was filmed back home. So on my last visit back to Michigan, my family rented it. It probably wouldn’t have been on the top of my list of movies to see if it hadn’t been filmed back home -- and I would have missed out on an incredible movie.
Road to Perdition isn’t really my kind of movie. I’m not one for dark, dramatic films. But I loved it anyway. Maybe part of that was because it was just so, well, pretty. It’s a beautifully artistic film -- which I wouldn’t normally expect from a movie about gangsters in the 1930s. Let’s just say that it wasn’t a fluke that this film won the Academy Award for cinematography. It deserved it.
The film is about Michael Sullivan (played -- somewhat unconvincingly, I’m afraid -- by Tom Hanks), a hitman working for John Rooney (Paul Newman). When Sullivan’s son, Michael, Jr. (played by Tyler Hoechlin), witnesses one of his father’s killings, Rooney’s son decides that the Sullivan family can’t be trusted. He kills Sullivan’s wife and youngest son, and the two Michael Sullivans are forced to leave their home together and run for their lives, all the while being followed by hired gun, Harlen Maguire (a strangely balding Jude Law).
Road to Perdition is a beautifully done story about fathers and sons. And even though I had a hard time seeing Tom Hanks as a hitman, I’m willing to overlook that. And I’ll definitely be watching it again.
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