Road to Perdition

A beautiful elegy to a decaying world whose sadness lingers on.

So is Perdition still a must-see? No question. But it's tough to fuss about it much when a picture is this fussy.

Visually, the picture is all of a piece, but it's a self-conscious piece of work -- all dark-toned academic classicism.

What makes the movie pay off is moving pictures of real action and of intimate scenes between man and boy that are all the more moving for being understated.

Powerful, beautiful film; ok for mature teens.

While crisply edited and unindulgent, Mendes' work is gratifyingly old-school in its rejection of modern-day stylistic agitation, the better to achieve a slow but inexorable build to its climax.

A fantastic exploration of violence, envy, loyalty, and relationships between fathers and sons, done through a superb old-school, throwback gangster film. Tom Hanks, Paul Newman and Daniel Craig are phenomenal. [Full review in Spanish]

Eventually the movie folds up into complete pictorialism.

... it’s a modern throwback to the classic gangster movie, set in the depths of the Depression in 1930s America, and Mendes pays great attention to the imagery of the screen adaptation.

Casting Hanks as a heavy is no mistake here, and though the gamble is not entirely successful it's a fine experiment.