Road To Perdition

I did a successful media blackout on this movie and went into it cold. Truly the best way to see a movie like this especially after hearing complaints from people that asshole movie reviewers give away turning points that would have deflated the movie for me. I will never give away key information in my reviews. It's unnecessary, lazy, and frankly, frickin rude that some reviewers should be so self-centered to think that they have the right to spoil plot points for people. But knowing absolutely nothing about this flick, I was still able to line up a whole bunch of reasons why I thought I wouldn't like this movie and for the most part my concerns were not justified. 

The first thing that was off-putting for me was the fact that I didn't know the definition of the word 'perdition.' I got a 1010 on my SATs and never got beyond 'taciturn' and 'loquacious' in terms of remembering definitions. For those of you like me:

per·di·tion   (pr-dshn)
n.

1.  
   1. Loss of the soul; eternal damnation.
   2. Hell: “Him the Almighty Power/Hurl'd headlong... /To bottomless perdition, there to dwell” (John Milton).

OK. Now that that is over with here's some things I was concerned with. Movies that take place in the 20-30's range I usually find ummm.... dated or something. I thought maybe I was finally done with Tom Hanks. I figured enough was enough with this guy. I assumed it would be boring cause the movie posters and stuff make it look totally boring.

I didn't mind the time period. I didn't mind Tom Hanks. And this movie wasn't boring (for the most part).

Tom Hanks plays a family man, devoted gangster type who does some bad stuff for a living. Paul Newman is his boss and there are a bunch of side characters including Jude Law (who they tried to 'ugly up' with thin hair, creepy fingernails, and little yellow teeth.) He was good. The acting carried this movie. The performances across the board were impressive and Tom Hanks proved that he can play yet another character. I've been a fan of his ever since Bosom Buddies which I watched all the way through the end when the chicks in the apartment complex found out that they were men dressing as women. Paul Newman had one scene where he got real pissed and locked up an Oscar for himself. Anyway to give you a real brief plot summary, things get all screwed up cause Paul Newman's son in the movie was a total dick.

Sam Mendes directed this and he did a good job. But the one main drawback is he seemed to have removed the alot of the 'grit' from this gangster movie. It was dark but dark with blatantly polished lighting. It was rainy but the rain was Hollywood rain. However, the violence was fortunately crude and blunt instead of flashy flash and overly dramamatizizized. This movie had some similarities to Unforgiven which I completely loved. The bad guy on the surface and underneath it all the complexity (or simplicity) of the character is revealed which makes you sway in judgement over their whole dealio. I like that.

Three Good Things About This Movie
- The acting was the best I've seen this year.
- Once the slowish pace of the movie was set it settled in and I always felt the movie had momentum.
- Jennifer Jason Leigh was in it. I've had a crush on her ever since Fast Times when she did it in the dugout with the stereo salesman and then later with Damone and we got to see her boobs. She didn't show them in this movie.

Three Bad Things About This Movie
- It seemed overly concerned with looking too good and feeling too real.
- Sometimes the threads that held the plot together were a bit stretched.
- It had a feeling of 'Look how great this movie is! Right? We're winning Best Picture! That's right, biatch!'

All in all I recommend this movie. I just liked watching it. But I have a feeling it's going to lose something on second and third viewings. It seems like a one time fix rather than something to be analyzed. See it on a rainy day if you can. Oh! And dress up like you're seeing Rocky Horror. There are scenes where it's interactive and you need to put up an umbrella or say lines back at the screen and stuff. Bring a water pistol filled with paint and shoot it up in the air during the shootouts. At least that's what I did.

___________________________________________________

here's the movie message board