I've seen Road to Perdition twice, and I've had about the same experience as when I watched American Beauty multiple times: The first time, I thought, "This is a beautiful film with so many symbolic scenes and deeper interpretations to think about." But when I saw it again, I was like, "Good lord, can you make the symbolism any more obvious?!" Road to Perdition holds up better over time than American Beauty, but even still, a consistent trait is emerging with Sam Mendes' films:
The film will have a star-studded cast, solid screen writing, innovative cinematography, and so on--all the elements needed for a great, Oscar-caliber film. The problem is, Mendes seemingly can't just let these elements naturally carry the movie to the upper echelons of film-making. Instead, he floods the film with an avalanche of visual and verbal symbols, so that the audience staggers out of the theater overwhelmed by the film's portentous importance. (There's Michael Sullivan and Michael, Jr. racing across the Illinois plains to escape the crime syndicate and look, they just drove through a crossroad! Oooh, the symbolic crossroads of Sullivan's decision to exact revenge. . . .) In the end, you actually have an oddly hollow film with tons of glitter but not a lot of gold.
Road to Perdition is certainly not in the realm of The Godfather, the definitive American movie about organized crime in which the plot unfolds with unassuming immediacy and the powerful deeper meanings subtly seep through. But it is a good movie, and probably the most re-watchable of Mendes' major films so far (I have a feeling that Jarhead would grate on my nerves the second time around too).
The film will have a star-studded cast, solid screen writing, innovative cinematography, and so on--all the elements needed for a great, Oscar-caliber film. The problem is, Mendes seemingly can't just let these elements naturally carry the movie to the upper echelons of film-making. Instead, he floods the film with an avalanche of visual and verbal symbols, so that the audience staggers out of the theater overwhelmed by the film's portentous importance. (There's Michael Sullivan and Michael, Jr. racing across the Illinois plains to escape the crime syndicate and look, they just drove through a crossroad! Oooh, the symbolic crossroads of Sullivan's decision to exact revenge. . . .) In the end, you actually have an oddly hollow film with tons of glitter but not a lot of gold.
Road to Perdition is certainly not in the realm of The Godfather, the definitive American movie about organized crime in which the plot unfolds with unassuming immediacy and the powerful deeper meanings subtly seep through. But it is a good movie, and probably the most re-watchable of Mendes' major films so far (I have a feeling that Jarhead would grate on my nerves the second time around too).