Tom Hanks and Paul Newman play sad mobsters in Sam Mendes' stately gangster epic.
Every week, Entertainment Weekly is looking back at the biggest movies of the summer of 2002.
Join us for a rewatch of the first true summer of Hollywood’s strange new millennium.
Tom Hanks and Tyler Hoechlin in ‘Road to Perdition’.Everett Collection
DARREN:What would an event picture look like in a world without fantasy movies or blockbuster franchises?
I should note, this would not necessarily be a better world.
If anything, it might just mean Oscar bait comes out 12 months a year.
Everett Collection
A routine intimidation visit goes awry when hotheaded Connor starts a fatal gunfight.
Stowaway Michael sees the killings, which makes him an unfortunate witness.
And I haven’t even mentionedJude Lawas Harlen Maguire, a slithery killer with a photography fetish.
Where do you slot this one in the Hanks canon?
Is it weird to complain about a sincere adult thriller one week after theBallchinians?
(Soft-boiled, hard-boiled, goodbye!
You’re still dying in that fancy bathrobe.)
Did any other supporting players stand out to you?
There’s a cat-and-mouse hunt between the fleeing Sullivans and Law’s predatory Maguire.
Craig dominates the first act, and then pretty much disappears.
I actually think Hanks is a problem.
He has a playful chemistry with Hoechlin (who’s thoughtful and sharp-edged in a discovery role).
But he’s also a little too smooth to capture his hard man’s rough edges.
Viewed in 2022, I experiencePerditionmainly as a signpost for changing times.
They’re under assault from a younger generation played, of course, by the up-and-coming stars of tomorrow.
Still, I sense added poignance in the passing of the Newman and Hanks characters.
Metatextually, it’s game recognizing game.
There are other ways for superstars to go.
There are moments of real awe in the cinematography, though.
The beach-house climax is memorable, too: a lovely moment of reverie wrecked by shocking violence.
Do you have any favorite shots or sequences, Leah?
I’ll say this for Mendes: The guy sure picks the best cinematographers.
I’m not a big fan of retroactively punishing films for their lack of wokeness or inclusion.
What’s the point, honestly?
ButPerditionis so low on estrogen, it almost grows its own beard in real time.
I do get what you’re saying about Hanks.
If he’d been a couple decades younger back then, maybeHarrison Ford?
(He’s killer with a bullwhip,even better with a bullet.)
Read past 2002 rewatches:
