GANGLAND CHICAGO DRAMA NEVER QUITE HITS THE TARGET.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

``ROAD TO PERDITION'' is paved with good intentions, but the film is so self-conscious in its studied, grand designs that it ends up almost suffocating on them. The movie is director Sam Mendes' follow-up to his Oscar-winning debut, ``American Beauty,'' and Mendes again wants to give us a movie that has Something To Say. But in his grim determination to be serious-minded, Mendes seems to have forgotten how to deliver a movie that has energy and purpose.

``Perdition'' features Tom Hanks playing a brutal hit man who also happens to be a really nice dad. The role is supposedly Hanks' turn to the dark side, but there's a certain disconnect between a man who viciously shoots people for a living and is also a loving father who patiently (and, in a tonal misstep, comically) teaches his son how to drive a stick shift so they can rob banks together.

That scene belongs in ``Paper Moon'' (or ``Sleepless in Seattle''), not in a movie about the Irish Mafia in 1931 Illinois. Hanks is great as the elusive killing machine, but he's really not all that different from the soldier he played in ``Saving Private Ryan,'' an honorable man forced to brandish a gun in the name of family. Want to see Hanks play a bad guy? Rent ``Punchline'' instead.

That's not to say that ``Perdition'' isn't without its merits. It's a beautifully photographed film, shot by Mendes' Oscar-winning ``American Beauty'' collaborator Conrad Hall. And Mendes' impressive technique can still translate into some breathtaking work: There's a confrontation between Hanks' hit man and another assassin (creepily played by Jude Law) in the middle of the movie that ripples with tension.

And the acting is uniformly excellent, even when the material comes up short. Hanks plays Michael Sullivan, the efficient right hand man and surrogate son to powerful mobster John Rooney (Paul Newman, elegantly ominous underneath a paternal facade). Rooney has another son (Daniel Craig), a loose cannon who resents his father's closeness with Sullivan and rather too obviously wants dad's approval and attention. As Rooney notes: ``Sons are put on Earth to trouble their fathers.''

His words are meant to be prophetic, and soon that trouble has Hanks' Sullivan and his oldest son, Michael Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin, quite good) on the road and on the run. David Self's screenplay, which is adapted from a graphic novel by Max Allan Collins (and cribs liberally from ``The Godfather''), is big on the father-son themes, largely absent in the source material. Sullivan wants a different life for his son and is willing to go to any lengths to ensure that he gets it.

But the movie's Oedipal elements aren't nearly as profound or deep as the filmmakers believe them to be. And for all the movie's exquisite imagery and literate sensibilities, what it really could use is a little Midwest grittiness that would invite audiences into the story. ``Perdition'' is detached when it should be daring, beautiful when it should be bold. That makes it an honorable failure, but one worth seeing even when it places a little too much importance on being earnest.

ROAD TO PERDITION - Three stars

(Rated R: for violence and language)

Starring: Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law, Daniel Craig, Tyler Hoechlin.

Director: Sam Mendes.

Running time: 1 hr. 59 min.

Playing: Wide release.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Tom Hanks, left, seeks both revenge and a connection with his son (Tyler Hoechlin) in ``Road to Perdition.''