In his latest role, Hollywood's favourite son Tom Hanks breaks
new ground by playing a bad guy for the first time in his career
in the Depression-era drama Road to Perdition.
Hanks is cast as a gun-toting hit man working for an Illinois
mob boss in the 1930s.
The movie is eagerly awaited as it marks British director Sam
Mendes's first film since his Oscar-winning American Beauty.
It is also in contention for Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion
award.
Hanks has displayed some darkness in his previous roles as a
gay man battling Aids in Philadelphia, and as a stand-up comic in
Punchline.
So, he does not see his latest character as a radical
departure.
Referring to the gunman he portrays he says: "There is no
difference in a lot of ways between this guy and quite a few great
number of people that I have played.
"It's just that the extent that he goes to in order to provide
for his family is a very, very different one."
Two-time Oscar-winning Hanks maintains he never worries what
movie-goers might think of roles like this, which might be at odds
with his received image as America's beloved cinematic everyman.
"If I did that, there's 19 movies I never would have made,"
says Hanks.
"I never would have made Philadelphia because no one wants to
see a homosexual man die of Aids in a movie.
"If you think about it in that way, you'll second guess
yourself right out of any sort of artistic enterprise."
Stylised
Mendes is quick to set the record straight and explain that
Hanks isn't playing an out-and-out evil man.
He says the headline: "Tom Hanks plays a baddie. Shock!
Horror!" is not quite the case.
"It is a dark character, but it is morally ambivalent, he is
not just purely bad."
Hanks may be a mobster but he is also a man with a strong sense
of loyalty and parental responsibility.
Father-son dynamics form the focus of this highly stylised
mobster picture.
Hanks plays Michael Sullivan, the loyal enforcer for a mob boss
and surrogate father-figure who is portrayed by 73-year-old screen
veteran Paul Newman.
But the key relationship is between Hanks's character and one
of his young sons whose eyes are opened to a disturbing reality
when he first witnesses his father killing another man.
As Hanks sees it, the film is partly an examination of "the
son's preconceived notions of who his father is, and the reality
of who his father is".
Branding
For most of the film Sullivan is on the road with his young son
trying to avoid a menacing hit man, played by Jude Law, who
doubles as a crime photographer.
Sullivan is on the run trying to exact revenge for an act of
violence against his family. But Road to Perdition is also a tale
of redemption.
Hanks's character tries to do everything he can to make sure
his son does not follow him into a life of violence.
Jude Law plays a crime photographer
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Hanks credits Mendes for making this big-budget endeavour,
reported to have cost $80m, different from the standard Hollywood
picture.
Hanks notes that Mendes's touch is particularly noticeable with
the gun play and pacing.
"The violence here happens by large very, very quickly," he
says. "It's over very fast. It's a very personal brand of
violence.
"The pauses, the silences in this movie are much more important
than what anybody else says, and again, that's the sensibilities
and the artistic aesthetic of Mendes storytelling."
Effective
The film bears some resemblance to American Beauty in that both
films take an oblique look at the dark side of the American dream.
In the case of Road to Perdition, it is not suburbia but
organised crime that is brought into focus.
It is a screen portrayal of the Prohibition-era gangster that
is not rooted in naturalism, but in stylised film-noir.
Some critics have praised the film for its artful look but they
have also noted that it is showy, too full of style and too
self-conscious.
Few are complaining about Hanks, who once again has turned in a
very effective and restrained performance, as a morally ambiguous
gangster and family man.
But even with the star power of Hanks and Mendes' direction it
seems unlikely that Road to Perdition will match American Beauty's
track record at the box office and in winning awards.
The picture is probably too dark and studied to have broad
popular appeal.
The awards, when they come, are more likely to go to
individuals in the design and technical categories responsible for
the film's impressive look.
