Golden boy Sam Mendes’ less-than-feelgood follow-up to American Beauty suffered a critical backlash, but its daringly gloomy photography (by the late Conrad Hall) is often breathtaking. An unsmiling Tom Hanks’ hitman-with-a-heart is underwritten, but a wrinkly Paul Newman still oozes charisma and Jude Law’s credibly sinister. A surprisingly bleak, long dark night of the soul.
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