A lot of people probably went to see "Road to Perdition" simply for the fact that Sam Mendes directed. I know that's why I went to it. The fact that it has Tom Hanks and Paul Newman in it and that it's a gangster movie are pretty attractive too, so I probably would have seen it had it been placed under someone else's direction; but tonight, I had Mendes on the mind.
Exposition seems pretty obsolete here on the imdb because loads of other people will have already done that for me and a lot of the people reading this will be reading it because they want to see how many people liked or didn't like a movie they did or didn't. So until I get paid for it, I'll spare myself that aspect of my review.
For the most part, the cast is well known and highly respectable and we know that these people are going to do a good job in just about anything. And here they do that, as one might suspect.
So much of the scrutiny directed towards the movie will be focused towards Mendes because he made such an assured debut. So does "Road" measure up to "American Beauty"? I don't think so. But the latter was pretty amazing, so I'm no going to begrudge Mendes for following something great with something that's simply good.
I liked "Road to Perdition." I liked the story. I liked the cast and its dynamic. I loved how it looked. But something WAS missing. Unlike "American Beauty", "Road to Perdition" lacks identification between audience and film. Not everybody is like gangsters, some might say, so how can one expect one to identify with the plights they face. "The Godfather" got it right. The Corleones were gangsters, yes, but they were isolated in their own sort of world that held many parallels to that of the general population. In "Road" we never forget who's really good or (mostly) bad and that creates a lack of sympathy, I think. Part of what Lester Burnham wanted was wrong but oh, how we identified with him.
"Road to Perdition" was good and I'm glad I saw it. Its heart was in the right place and it's a respectable production. And I await Mendes next effort as eagerly as this one.
7/10
Exposition seems pretty obsolete here on the imdb because loads of other people will have already done that for me and a lot of the people reading this will be reading it because they want to see how many people liked or didn't like a movie they did or didn't. So until I get paid for it, I'll spare myself that aspect of my review.
For the most part, the cast is well known and highly respectable and we know that these people are going to do a good job in just about anything. And here they do that, as one might suspect.
So much of the scrutiny directed towards the movie will be focused towards Mendes because he made such an assured debut. So does "Road" measure up to "American Beauty"? I don't think so. But the latter was pretty amazing, so I'm no going to begrudge Mendes for following something great with something that's simply good.
I liked "Road to Perdition." I liked the story. I liked the cast and its dynamic. I loved how it looked. But something WAS missing. Unlike "American Beauty", "Road to Perdition" lacks identification between audience and film. Not everybody is like gangsters, some might say, so how can one expect one to identify with the plights they face. "The Godfather" got it right. The Corleones were gangsters, yes, but they were isolated in their own sort of world that held many parallels to that of the general population. In "Road" we never forget who's really good or (mostly) bad and that creates a lack of sympathy, I think. Part of what Lester Burnham wanted was wrong but oh, how we identified with him.
"Road to Perdition" was good and I'm glad I saw it. Its heart was in the right place and it's a respectable production. And I await Mendes next effort as eagerly as this one.
7/10