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Title: exceeded expectation
Review: I expected to find this film dull and my interest level unsustainable, but it was unexpectedly dark and unexpectedly interesting. The story follows Michael Sullivan (an unusually subdued Tom Hanks), an Irish mob hit man who also happens to be a devoted family man, working hard at maintaining a strict separation of work and home lives. When his older son witnesses one of his father's hits, the attempts to keep work and home lives separate are foiled as other hit men from the same crime family (that of John Rooney, played with an expert balance between patriarchal authority and power by an icy but somehow still, at times, warm, Paul Newman) murder Sullivan's wife and younger son. Sullivan goes on the run with his older son, both seeking revenge and seeking a surefire way to protect his son's life and prevent his son from traveling the same path he has. The film was well handled, subtly suspenseful and never dry, which helped it exceed my expectations.
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