The road to the Oscars begins with the "Road to Perdition".

As I sit back and reflect on my viewing of the new Sam Mendes film "Road to Perdition", all I can think is that talented people never waste a moment.

Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law, Jennifer Jason-Leigh, Stanley Tucci, Daniel Craig and Tyler Hoechlin are brought together by Sam Mendes the director of "American Beauty" and in film that could very well have all of them standing holding gold statues on Oscar night.

This movie sucked me in and kept me glued to the screen until the very end. It had the same feel to me as "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile".

The film takes place in 1931 and it takes you to 1931.

Hanks plays Michael Sullivan, a hitman for crime boss John Rooney, played by Paul Newman. It is a thrill to see the two share the screen and play a touching piano duet that is a simple scene but speaks volumes of the power of film. Sullivan was taken in by Rooney and was in turn indebted to Rooney for helping him to achieve a life. He was a father to Michael as Michael was a son to Rooney.

Michael also has a family of his own, Michael Jr, his oldest who has always wondered what his father does for a living. Michael Jr, is played brilliantly by Tyler Hoechlin as a son to a father with secrets held between them.

I don't want to share any spoilers with you because to see this movie unfold before your eyes is what movie magic is all about.

Mendes understands how to use a camera, but most of all he knows how to use actors. He understands that the talent of a Hanks or Newman is that they can say more with a look or a gesture than others can do with ten lines of dialog.

Thomas Newman delivers a haunting score which has stuck in my mind for the last day and a half.

The film is able to take predictable moments and inject them with a soul that most filmmakers only dream about.

Conrad Hall was the cinematographer on the picture and has given us some of the most beautiful scenery in a long time.

While I write this review one thing sticks in my mind, a shot of Michael Sr, sitting on a porch of an old farm house looking out at his son and seeing what his wishes was his life. Simple and loving, yet knowing in the end that he must do things that no son should ever see a father do.

For when all is said and done a father loves his son just as his son loves him. And every father is a hero to his own son.