Road to perdition

 

DIRECTED BY-:
Sam Mendes
STARRING-:
Tom Hanks
Jude Law
Daniel Craig
YEAR OF RELEASE-:
2002
PREMISE-:
Mike Sullivan works as a hit man for crime boss John Rooney. Sullivan views Rooney as a father figure, however after his son is witness to a killing, Mike Sullivan finds himself on the run in attempt to save the life of his son and at the same time looking for revenge on those who wronged him.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

THE PROBLEMS-:

SULLIVAN AND MAGUIRE MEET FOR THE FIRST TIME

• A police officer is conveniently present at the SAME TIME Maguire arrives in the diner.
• Maguire luckily gets so distracted by the police officer that he is not able to notice Sullivan escaping in his car.
• Lucky that Mike was sleeping in the car in such a way that Maguire was not able to see him.
• After hearing the shots fired by Maguire, why didn’t the police officer come out pointing his gun at him? Why did he stupidly, without drawing his gun, ask ‘’What are you doing?”, as if he seriously expected a genuine answer from the shooter?

SULLIVAN MEETS THE ACCOUNTANT (Alexander Rance)

• When Sullivan barged in through the front door of the hotel, the receptionist was conveniently not only busy talking on the phone, but was also doing so with his head turned AWAY from the entrance gate. 

• The keys to ALL the rooms were very conveniently lined up right in FRONT of the reception, instead of way back, which luckily enabled Sullivan to figure out the name of the room in which Rance was staying.

• Sullivan was CONVENIENTLY able to read the name of the room (whose key was missing) from a far distance.

• It's VERY convenient that the receptionist wasn’t covering up the area where the key for the bridal suite resided, or else Sullivan wouldn't have been able to figure out the name of Rance's room. 

• It's very convenient that the key for the bridal suite was the ONLY key that was not at its designated place when Sullivan arrived.

• It is VERY convenient that the storyline of ''Rance ordering (and not getting) his desired breakfast'' coincided with the storyline of ''Sullivan arriving at the hotel to confront Rance'' in such a way that the former severely affected the latter (BECAUSE Rance doesn't get his desired kind of egg, he lets his guard down and allows whoever is knocking on the door to simply ''come in''. I mean, if Rance had already eaten his breakfast JUST BEFORE Sullivan arrived, then he wouldn't  have been so careless and would've probably inquired as to who is on the other side of the door and would've also approached the door with a gun in his hand before opening it).  

• Why wasn’t Maguire staying in the adjacent room or even IN the room with Rance? What if Sullivan came in at night? What If Sullivan arrived when Maguire was sleeping with the prostitute? Wouldn’t it have been almost IMPOSSIBLE for Maguire to then protect Rance? 

• Sullivan VERY CONVENIENTLY doesn’t arrive at the hotel during the night (when Maguire would probably be busy sleeping or having sex with the prostitute), even though it would make complete sense to do so (It would be less conspicuous, there will be lesser number of witnesses, and the roads would be less crowded, which will make the escape MUCH easier).

• The ‘’opening bell on Wall Street’’ COINCIDENTALLY starts to ring at the SAME time Sullivan arrives.

• The ‘’opening bell on Wall Street’’ is conveniently SO loud that it doesn’t let Sullivan hear the sound of his own car horn.

• The bullets fired (by Maguire) towards Sullivan ACCIDENTALLY kill Rance JUST BEFORE he can run away with the bank documents. 

• Plot armor-: Sullivan luckily gets shot in the arm and not in the head. 

THE ENDING

In the end, we are shown that Sullivan and Mike decide to go to Sarah's house, presumably to live out the rest of their lives in peace. There are two major justifications for this decision, both of which ultimately come across as very stupid-:

JUSTIFICATION 1-: 

Sullivan thinks Maguire is dead and is therefore no longer a threat, i.e, he won't be waiting for them at Sarah's house.  

THE STUPIDITY-:

Sullivan has absolutely NO reason to believe that Maguire is dead, since Maguire HIMSELF shot Sullivan in the arm at the end of their encounter in Rance's hotel. Sullivan should be smart enough to know that Maguire would at least try to take revenge for what Sullivan did to him.

JUSTIFICATION 2-: 

Nitti promised to leave Sullivan alone after he killed Connor, which is why Sullivan believes there is no more threat to his and Mike's life.

THE STUPIDITY-: 

How can Sullivan, a professional who is in the gangster business for YEARS, be so naive? Doesn't he know that REGARDLESS of what Nitti says, he and Mike are still loose ends, and that eventually SOMEONE will be sent to try and eliminate them? 

THE POSITIVES-:

• The Performances were all good. 
• The Characters were satisfactorily written. 
• The Soundtrack was brilliant and was used appropriately.
• The action scenes were shot well.
• The Pacing was excellent.
• The cinematography, camera work, production value, and set design were all top notch. 

RATING-: 6/10