Road To Perdition

Quality: * * * Acceptability: -2

RATING: R

STARRING: Tom Hanks, Tyler Hoechlin, Paul Newman, Jude Law, Daniel Craig, Stanley Tucci, and Jennifer Jason Leigh

DIRECTOR: Sam Mendes

BASED ON THE GRAPHIC NOVEL BY: Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner

DISTRIBUTOR: DreamWorks

GENRE: Drama/Gangster Movie

INTENDED AUDIENCE: Older teenagers and adults

In Road To Perdition, Tom Hanks stars as Mike Sullivan, an Irish Catholic hit man in a small town outside of Chicago. One night Sullivan's son, Michael, decides to see what his dad does for a living. He witnesses the son of Sullivan's boss murdering another gangster, and his father shooting it out with and killing the gangster's henchmen. This starts a chain of events that demonstrates the very different paths that Mike and his son will eventually take in their lives.

This is a beautifully filmed movie with a top-notch director and all-star cast. The movie is a fascinating study in the dangers of "rules without relationship" in religion and the desperate need for good fathers. Although the movie shows that the wages of sin is death and damnation, it fails to carry through its redemptive worldview to its logical conclusion. Road To Perdition also has some story problems and contains strong violence and foul language.

CONTENT: Mild redemptive worldview with some genuine prayers to God in Jesus' name, some lauding of the Scriptures and biblical morality in a works righteousness context but only a mild moral effect is shown on the protagonist; about 16 obscenities and three profanities; intense gangster violence with numerous murders and shoot outs, including some blood; scene of scantily-clad prostitutes in back of nightclub; alcohol use, drunkenness, selling illegal liquor; smoking and man takes some kind of drug; and, strong or solid miscellaneous immorality includes gambling, lying, stealing, cheating, betrayal, parental neglect, and protagonist who kills his enemies, partly for revenge and partly to protect his son.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Jul 22, 2002
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