in the winter of 1931 and supposedly 12 year old tyler hoechlin ( a michael sullivan jr. ) wonder what his mobster father tom hank ( michael mike sullivan ) do for a living . young hoechlin follow mr. hank to work one evening and and witness him blast away some rival gangster . this lead in a very roundabout way to godfather type paul newman ( a john rooney ) hire independent hit man jude law ( a harlen maguire ) to track down hoechlin and hank and who be off to cool their heel in chicago . hank think they will be safe with a relative and which be puzzle when you consider the character line of work . look uncannily like paul peterson ( the donna reed show ) and hoechlin do a terrific job for director sam mendes while and and get to work with this cast make him the lucky young actor of 2002. but and the most striking thing about road to perdition be the stunning cinematography of conrad l. hall and which deservedly win a career cap academy award for the late photographer . mr. hall work be truly superlative . this help make up for the overall impression of a measure and contrive staginess to both the narrative and visuals . the deviating end be abruptly uplifting ( the unrelated dog be an example of the aforementioned staginess ) . road to perdition ( 7/12/02 ) sam mendes ~ tom hank and tyler hoechlin and paul newman and jude law .