The Road to Perdition is unlike most gangster films we’ve seen. Some have compared it to The Godfather, another gangster film, but I see it as something closer to Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, which was a Western. In Unforgiven, Eastwood dispelled the notion of the classic Hollywood cowboy. The men in Unforgiven were not heroes; they were ruthless killers, usually alone, and often times drunk. Likewise, the men in this film are not slick gangsters. They’re simply men with families that do a job because they have to, or in Sullivan’s case, because he’s obliged to.

There’s a lot to like about this film. It is brilliantly cast, wonderfully acted, and superbly filmed. Technically, it’s hard to fault, and the story is tight and, for the most part, interesting. It also has star power. When you cast Hanks and Newman opposite each other it’s obvious that you want to make a big-time splash. And come Oscar time this will undoubtedly be handed some awards.

However, Perdition is not the success that director Sam Mendes’s first film, American Beauty, was. In fact, it’s difficult to review Perdition without comparing it to that movie simply because of how good American Beauty was. I loved American Beauty, and after seeing this I now know why I liked it so much -- and why this one fails to muster up the same sort of impact.

American Beauty had characters that most everyone could identify with in one way or another. In particular, there was Kevin Spacey’s Lester Burnham character. For the most part, men found him to be a hero, while women generally despised him. The moment when he announces, "I rule" marks the dividing line. But regardless of whether you liked him or hated him, you thought of him as a real person. He got under your skin. In The Road to Perdition there is no character like that -- including Michael Sullivan (Hanks). There’s simply no one to relate to and the tone of the film is too cold. Beauty involved you; Perdition keeps you at a distance.