ROAD TO PERDITION

Perhaps it's difficult for you to get away with a week -end. This time I invested my week end by watching a Hollywood movie – ROAD TO PERDITION. This is a nice gangster movie, claims to be next best gangster movie after GODFATHER.

Michael Sullivan Sr. (Tom Hanks) is a trusted aide to John Rooney (Newman), an Irish American organized crime boss. Sullivan, an orphan and a soldier in the Great War, was adopted by the older man as a child, and he has been working with him ever since his teens. Rooney treats Sullivan as a surrogate son, being closer to him than his own son and heir, the vain and insecure Connor Rooney (Daniel Craig). Further frustrating Connor, his father treats Sullivan's two sons, Peter and Michael Jr. like grandchildren. At a wake of a former buisness associate, Michael Jr. and Peter notice the subtle friction between their father and Connor.

Sullivan senior and Connor are instructed by Rooney to deal with Finn McGovern, another employee of Rooney's whose brother was murdered by the Rooney organization as punishment for allegedly stealing from them. Unbeknownst to both Michael Sullivan and Connor Rooney, a curious twelve-year-old Michael Sullivan Jr. hides in the car and witnesses the ensuing scene where Connor, acting against his father's wishes, murders McGovern. The shocked Sullivan Sr. swears his son to secrecy, while John Rooney humiliates his son by demanding an apology for his seemingly hotheaded actions. Ostensibly to prevent the threat of Sullivan Jr. divulging the murder he witnessed (but in reality feeling jealous of and threatened by Sullivan Sr.), Connor, again against his father's wishes, attempts to have Sullivan murdered at the same time as personally killing his wife Annie and younger son Peter. Both Sullivan Sr. and Jr. survive the attempt on their lives and flee to Chicago.

When it becomes clear that Al Capone's crime syndicate will not countenance Sullivan's goal of taking revenge on the Rooneys, he develops an elaborate scheme to protect his son and to blackmail the mob into giving up Connor by robbing its secret accounts in banks throughout Chicago. Sullivan personally steals the 'dirty money' that Capone is holding, while Micheal Jr. provides his assistance in the getaway car. This way, Capone will give up Connor, in exchange for the money. Capone, however, is more upset at losing his money, and he will not make any bargains or deals with Sullivan at all. He sets up Harlen Maguire (Law), a voyeuristic, freelance photographer/hit man hired by the Capone organization, to complete the eradication of the Sullivans. Maguire has a habit of taking pictures of his dead victims, much to his pleasure.

It later becomes apparent that Connor has been embezzling money from his father, holding the money under the names of gang members that he has murdered. Confronted by Sullivan with the evidence that his son has been betraying him, John Rooney refuses to stop protecting Connor. He reminds Sullivan that, they too, are murderers, that this life they chose, and that "none of us will see heaven." Wanting his son to avoid traveling the road he has taken in life, Sullivan has a difficult decision to make. In order to gain revenge and protect his son, Sullivan must then kill the members of Rooney's gang, including John Rooney. He is then able to track down and avenge himself on Connor. Since Capone protected Connor because he was only Rooney's son, there was no more reason to hide him after his father was dead.

Subsequently, the psychopathic (and disfigured) Maguire succeeds in tracking down the Sullivans and murders Michael Sullivan senior at a beachside house in Perdition. Apparently, he traced a call placed from Sullivan to his wife's sister, Sarah, and he was able to determine that they were headed for the town of Perdition. Exactly how long he was there and what he did to Aunt Sarah is unknown, but, noting that he was cold blooded and there was no furniture in her living room, it is implied that he killed her before she could warn them, hid the body, and waited for his real prey. Michael has the opportunity to shoot Maguire but does not (Maguire is instead killed by the dying Sullivan Sr.), thus ensuring that Michael, at least, has a chance "to see Heaven".