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Road to Perdition was one of the best films in the last ten years. It is lyrical, like a great opera, not to be appreciated by the masses (or, as Harlan Ellison calls them, "the great wad"). Thus it is misunderstood by the common man - and yet this film is all about him! The great longing of the unredemptive soul, the deep sorrows of the empty heart, the yearning for something or someplace beyond the horrid commonality of everyday existence. It is more than a morality, or a simple "ode to an earlier time." It is a "gangster film" like 2001 is a "sci-fi flick." Such subterranean musings are best left to the multiplex neophyte, the Spielberg-wannabe troglodyte. This film was under-appreciated because of its predecessor, the director's Academy award-winning opus to immorality and deviant behavior, "American Beauty." It is as if Mr. Mendes emerged from pupae stage and became a lovely Emperor butterfly with the making of this movie. (Perhaps we should thank the lovely and immensely talented Ms. Winslet -?) What can be said about Tom Hanks? Stand up comic indeed! More than a "Jimmy Stewart for our times" he is - it can finally be said - one of the finest actors on the planet. Road to Perdition is a masterpiece that will echo throughout time and film history more for the sum of its parts (perfect cinematography, perfect casting, etc) than for any simplistic reason that has to do with gunfights and car chases.
score 10/10
myster_mystik 14 March 2005
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1039607/ |
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29-11-2019 19:05:02
