The Big Picture

• Tom Hanks defies expectations in Road to Perdition by convincingly playing a conflicted mob enforcer.
• Hanks portrays Michael Sullivan's silent, menacing presence with skill, showing emotional depth through subtle shifts.
• Road to Perdition showcases Hanks' ability to break out of his nice guy image and play complex, morally gray characters.

When you're the only actor in history who could be the obvious choice to play both Walt Disney and Fred Rogers, it would stand to reason that nobody would see you playing a killer. But Tom Hanks has pulled off a series of surprises in his career, far surpassing his modest origins as a goofy sitcom star. Proving himself far more adept at drama than anybody could have anticipated, he drastically expanded the scope of what people could see him doing, especially after winning two Best Actor Oscars back-to-back. Seeing him lead a platoon of soldiers to rescue one man and carry an entire movie on his back while stranded alone on an island were both plausible enough stretches for audiences to buy into his range. A killer for the mob, however, was a larger stretch, and so it's likely that some audiences met his presence in Road to Perdition with initial skepticism. That skepticism led to one of the most tortuously conflicted performances of his career being sadly swept under the rug, and people missed out on Hanks successfully branching out in a way he rarely ever did before or since.

What Is 'Road to Perdition' About?

Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks) is an enforcer for an Irish Mob boss named John Rooney (Paul Newman). The two have a close bond that borders on father and son, since Rooney adopted him as an orphan child. Meanwhile, Michael has a distant relationship with everyone else in his life, most notably his older son, Michael Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin). Michael Jr. is curious about who his father is and what he does for his job, and so he hides in the backseat of his car when Michael goes out on assignment with Rooney's erratic son, Connor (Daniel Craig). He winds up spying on the two while confronting their target, and Connor unexpectedly kills the target, much to Michael's chagrin. When the two find Michael Jr., Michael and Connor split up and agree to keep silent on this, while Michael takes Jr. home with him, swearing him to secrecy about his true profession. This sparks a journey that father and son must go on that will uncover a conspiracy, expose long-hidden betrayals, and force Michael to confront the state of his soul and if he can pull himself over the hill towards true redemption.

Michael is a man defined by how much he forces himself to hold back. He is a brick wall who will never allow himself to truly express what's going on inside of him. It's not that he doesn't have any sentimental feelings at all, it's that he seems incapable of knowing how to effectively express them. His smile is more of a crooked grimace, his eyes have the sheen of slate even when they're glistening with tears, and his internal confusion is reflected in the lumbering stiffness that manifests in his body, possibly due to his past as a war veteran. A Tom Hanks performance is one that's usually defined by an outpouring of charm and accessibility, playing men so transparently worthy of affection that he could literally do nothing, and we'd want to give him a hug for it. Michael Sullivan's silence is oppressive and withering, willing himself to be invisible in plain sight and better able to efficiently do his job while simultaneously protecting himself from any undue misery. Even when he endures a major tragedy, like finding the bodies of his younger son (Liam Aiken) and wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh) in his home after Connor kills them, he can scream about it, but he can barely cry about it. He doesn't know how to.

Tom Hanks Makes Michael Sullivan a Badass With Little Effort

For a guy who spent a career carefully curating himself as the nicest man in Hollywood, Hanks makes for a pretty convincing gangster. He doesn't use his strength or size to be tough, but he has a way of imposing his aura onto others, tunneling his menace into his adversaries with minimal effort. Michael knows that most people in the Mob scene know of his reputation, and uses that to his advantage. In other words, he knows he's the boss, so he doesn't have to tell people he's the boss. He openly offers to be frisked by guards, demonstrating how confident he feels in situations where people can get the drop on him, and does so with a casualness underlined with an "I dare you" edge. It speaks to how adept a screen actor Hanks is that he's attuned to how much the camera can pick up, only needing to show the slightest of widening eyes or letting a prominent bead of sweat rolling down his face do all the work necessary to show how much he's having to swallow the stress he's enduring.

In accordance with that consistent low level simmer, his voice becomes its own signifier of his emotional arc. Early on, when he's more closed off from Michael Jr., his speaking voice is constricted and grumbly, squeezed out like a dry sponge. Most of what he bothers saying to his son is stern commands, the lightest of compliments, and an air of silent judgment. Even his attempts at being light are prickly and droll, like when Michael Jr. asks him if he could have asked for a higher cut of the money they robbed from a bank, and Michael responds "you'll never know" with no eye contact. It isn't until the two become closer, after Michael Jr. has to take care of Michael Sr.'s nearly mortal gunshot wound after a failed robbery, that Michael opens up and shares that he was afraid that his son would turn out like him if he exposed too much of himself. This leads to a warmer connection between the two, which is exemplified by his change of voice. His sentences start to become a little bit longer, he's eased off on the gravelly tone, and he treats Michael Jr. as more of an equally trusted partner. Hanks is generally an actor who's built more for small gestures and gradual shifting of behavior rather than broad gestures and "big" acting choices, and this is a performance that fits perfectly in his wheelhouse.

Tom Hanks Proved He Could Be the Bad Guy in 'Road to Perdition'

Road to Perdition wasn't the only time Tom Hanks has tried to "break bad" on us, to unfortunately mixed to negative results, from Cloud Atlas to Elvis. He fared far better playing characters that were still likable or heroic, but did have an underbelly of unsavory instincts or seedy vices, most notably in Charlie Wilson's War and Captain Phillips. That need for a complication is key to why Hanks was so great in Road to Perdition, as it allowed him to play a truly conflicted man. He may have stained his soul by living a life of murder and blind obedience, but he proved himself to be a loving father who strove to better himself and protect his son from the dangers of his chosen life.

That paternal connection combined with the stretching of his morality might play factors in why Hanks himself has so much love for the film, proclaiming it one of his best films that no one talks about. Hanks has often lamented how much his image got henpecked into the box of "modern day Jimmy Stewart" as early as 1987, a year before he'd completely changed his image as an actor with Big. For the majority of his time as a star, he's been painfully aware of how people want to see him, and he's valiantly attempted to break out of that box multiple times. While he may not have had a high batting average with such swings, at least he knocked one of them out of the park, and Road to Perdition stands as a testament to the courage that he has to go outside his comfort zone.

Road to Perdition is available to stream on Prime Video and Paramount+ in the U.S.

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