Highway to Hell

Scott Hardie | July 15, 2002
So I saw "Road to Perdition" yesterday. As usual, my review says most of what I want to say about it. It was really neat to see Geneva, Illinois in it. I kept seeing small towns and I kept thinking, "Is that Geneva? Is that Geneva?" and then they got to a new town and a sign said GENEVA right in the middle of the screen. :-) I think I spotted a goof in the final ten minutes or so, but I can't discuss it without giving away spoilers, so write to me if you've seen the film and give a shit. And about "perdition," we looked it up in my mom's dictionary, and it means eternal damnation (in the sense of losing your soul), or the place of eternal damnation. This makes beautiful sense in the movie, but of course you have to see it to know that.

Scott Hardie | July 15, 2002
Oh, and to anybody else who's seen it: Does the coin seem like symbolism to you? Three separate times in the film (no spoilers), this shiny silver dollar appears onscreen: Over the corpse's eyes at the wake at the very beginning, then when John Rooney tries to give it to little Michael, then when Maguire the assassin twirls it with his fingers. I know it's not the same coin each time, but it's the same object, and I think it symbolizes corruption. Am I imagining things?