Scene Selection — Geoff Carter: Cinematography showcased in ‘Perdition’ DVD

Friday, Feb. 28, 2003 | 8:34 a.m.

Geoff Carter is a Seattle based free-lance film critic and entertainment writer. Reach him at carter@pre2k.com.

The DVD of Sam Mendes' "Road to Perdition," available this week (Dreamworks DVD, $26.99), has a director's commentary track and the standard complement of deleted scenes and production photographs. They're interesting enough, but the best aspect of the "Perdition" DVD is its most basic -- its crisp, sharp picture.

"Road to Perdition" was the last film shot by the great cinematographer Conrad L. Hall ("In Cold Blood," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "American Beauty"). It is one of the richest-looking films you'll ever see, imbued with warm color, and the DVD reproduces Hall's peerless work with absolute fidelity.

Unfortunately, the story isn't as good as it looks. "Road to Perdition" is the one most traveled -- a gangster picture cut from the same cloth as any two James Cagney films.

The characters are interesting but don't connect with the viewer, and David Self's script lifts elements from "Paper Moon," "Unforgiven" and even "Terminator 2." You can see the end of this "Road" coming from 10 miles out.

Tom Hanks plays Michael Sullivan, a mob enforcer forced into a battle with his employer, the paternal John Rooney (Paul Newman) by Rooney's greedy and impulsive son Connor (Daniel Craig). Connor double-crosses Sullivan, murders his family and sends the hitman on a rampage with his surviving son (Tyler Hoechlin) in tow.

Hanks tries to play Sullivan as a taciturn loner with blood on his hands, but he never quite overcomes the all-American hero persona he's crafted over the course of his last few films. Mendes probably sold Hanks on the part the same way Sergio Leone sold the straight-arrow Henry Fonda on "Once Upon a Time in the West" -- as a bucketful of mud for his white suit -- but Hanks stays nice, even armed with a Thompson and small, dirty-looking mustache.

Faring better is Jude Law, who plays hitman and photographer Maguire. The English actor spoils his good looks with a bald cap, rotten teeth and an ambling limp, but he can't conceal his aristocratic bearing, and perhaps he didn't want to. Maguire, based loosely on the crime scene photographer Weegee, considers himself an artist, with bullets his medium.

Mendes and Law play the joke well. Weegee was notorious for arriving at crime scenes at the same time as police; who's to say he didn't commit the crimes himself?

Perhaps one viewer in 10 will know where Maguire's photography fetish came from, to the writer and director's credit. It's a smart, terrific twist, and every moment Law is on film, talking about "getting paid to do what I love," is an absolute pleasure.

If "Road to Perdition" had walked that tight line throughout, it would probably have gotten Mendes his second round of Oscar nominations. But he misses the mark by such a significant margin that you want to shake the film back into place.

You can see the film "Perdition" might have been in Law's performance and Hall's camera, running parallel to the film you're watching. But their paths never cross.