Sam Mendes proved with American Beauty that he isn't afraid of spilling the narrative beans early, but the whodunnit element and sparky character dynamics kept the viewer gripped.
''None of us will see heaven'.' It's a charged, emotional confrontation where the younger actor, for once, forgets to underact. ''There's only one guarantee',' he tells Hanks. When Hanks turns renegade, who will Rooney save? In a sombre and ultimately didactic drama, Newman is a steely-eyed, unforgettable presence.
More convincingly ambiguous is Paul Newman's Irish crime boss John Rooney, who must choose between the son he wishes was his and the malicious weasel Fate handed him, Connor (the excellent Daniel Craig). 'Some say he was a decent man, some say he was no good at all.' So, from the off, we're asked: which is it? The only rational response is: 'Are you kidding? He's Tom Hanks! Of course he's a decent man.' 'There are many stories about Michael Sullivan,' says Sullivan Jr (Tyler Hoechlin). Yet no matter how many corpses he creates, the camera captures Hanks' probity. Michael Sullivan: a ruthless, immutable hitman in Depression-era Chicago. Hanks, sporting Tommy gun and 'tache, is a killer in Road To Perdition.
