What is it to be a good person? Can someone do horrible things, even professionally murder other people, and still be a good at heart? In the beginning of Road To Perdition, Michael Sullivan, Jr. tells us that when people ask him whether Mike Sullivan, his dad, had any good in him, he simply says, "He was my father."

Mike Sullivan (Tom Hanks) is certainly a likeable character. He's a simple man, a hard worker who is good at his job and a man of little words and closed off emotions at home with his family. Not too different from your average American family man, right? Well, there's the fact that the work he is good at is being the top hitman for the local mob boss Mr. Rooney (Paul Newman). Rooney gave Sullivan everything he has, as Mike sees it. He took him in at a young age and gave him a job, and in turn he has been able to find love and raise a family. Mr. Rooney sees Mike like a son, but the problem is Rooney has a real son, Connor, and Connor is a son of a bitch.

A power-mad loose canon, Connor often accompanies Mike on important "visits" to those who have displeased Mr. Rooney. On one such visit, Connor flies off the handle, unnecessarily whacks the person he and Mike are visiting, and causes a big shoot out between that guy's thugs and the two of them. Mike and Connor come out of the gunfight untouched, but make a terrible discovery. Young Michael stowed away in the car and saw it all. This moment changes everything.

Connor, unknown to Mr. Rooney, decides that Mike and young Michael must die, for fear that young Michael will open his mouth about what he saw. Going against his father's verdict that young Michael be trusted and nothing happen to the Sullivans, Connor takes matters into his own hands and murders Mike Sullivan's innocent wife and younger son Peter, just as he sends Mike into a trap where he's to come out dead. Mike escapes, and young Michael is able to hide from Connor (who mixed up the identity of the two sons and thought Michael dead).

Consumed with sorrow and rage, Mike Sullivan, as dangerous a man as there is, has two choices: run and give young Michael as normal a life as possible ... or exact his vengeance. A man used to solving all of his problems with a pistol, Mike chooses bloody, vicious vengeance.

Tom Hanks is hardly a physically imposing man, yet his portrayal of Mike Sullivan as the most dangerous man in any given room he walks in to is totally believeable. The only time Sullivan even seems in danger is when Capone's deranged hitman played expertly by Jude Law shares the screen.

The Road To Peridition's story line is rather mundane, but it is the acting in the film that makes it a high quality picture. The interplay between Hanks and the timeless Paul Newman is nothing short of the brilliant work of two masters sparring. Law is one of the finest young actors in Hollywood and brings a dangerous, almost animalistic edge to all of his scenes. Stanley Tucci is brilliantly cool and detached as Al Capone's right hand man Frank Nitti, playing the famous gangster not as the thug seen in The Untouchables and other films, but as a businessman, someone worthy of the title of consigliere were this one of the Godfather movies.

Whether or not Mike Sullivan is a good man depends on your own personal value system, but there is no denying his story has been made by director Sam Mendes into a good film. The Road To Perdition is also a frustrating movie, but only because you care about its thick-headed main character and see things he does not. It's major knock is its unoriginal plotline and predictable outcome, but the fine performances in the picture well worth seeing on some night when you do not mind a downer.

RATING: 4/5 Stars

- Chris Kivlehan