Directed by:
Michael MannCinematography:
Dante SpinottiComposer:
Elliot GoldenthalCast:
Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup, Jason Clarke, Rory Cochrane, David Wenham, Giovanni Ribisi, Stephen Lang, Leelee Sobieski (more)VOD (3)
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Johnny Depp stars as charismatic 1930s gangster John Dillinger, whose notorious bank robberies have turned him into a celebrity during the Depression era. The rise in crime has J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup) desperate to have his newly created FBI take down gangsters such as Dillinger, "Pretty Boy" Floyd (Channing Tatum), and "Baby Face" Nelson (Stephen Graham). Enter Agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale), an ambitious crimefighter sent to Chicago to capture Dillinger and his gang. The criminal has evaded the law before, but he is drawn to the Second City by the beautiful Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard). (Universal Pictures US)
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There’s no need to hide it under a mountain of text, when one word is enough to describe Public Enemies to the tee: borefest; maybe extended with the adjective digital. It’s hard to say why this flat gangster flick needed to be so long, when not a single one of the protagonists develops in any noticeable way (Purvis has only goal for the entire film and Dillinger doesn't evolve at all after meeting Billie). The biggest problem is how uninteresting both of the main characters are; what can you do when you don’t have anyone to root for (because both of them can be seen negatively) and you don’t give a toss about their fates? A weaker 6/10.
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On the one hand, the digital camera (I don't get it, but by the end I got used to it), the drawn-out plot and several historical inaccuracies, on the other hand, the perfect actors and especially the actress, the excellently filmed shootouts, very suspenseful scenes and Goldenthal's magical music. Public Enemies is good, even very good, but it’s not perfect. If Michael Mann had wanted to make something like Heat from the 1930s (and he probably did, given how sympathetically or unsympathetically Dillinger and Purvis are portrayed), he didn't succeed. But nobody expected that anyway, did they?
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Mann continues where he left off with Miami Vice – in raw and unadorned filmmaking, in which there is sharp sound and naturalistic image of a digital camera. He once again helps himself wonderfully with music that gives the sequences a gradient and atmosphere. Unfortunately, the intention to make a 1930s version of Heat failed due to the script, and because of Christian Bale. I don't know who is to more blame, but Depp's thug is the main character, and the sleek man of the law is absolutely unable to handle any problems or ambiguities. It’s all about John Dillinger, and Michael Mann, with his foppish and gentleman-like nature, pays tribute to all of the mustachioed gangster melodramas from the past. It works great, including the ending. The motif of Dillinger as the last representative of gallant robbers, which is destroyed by an inconspicuous mafia racketeering, brings a certain depth to the film. For two and a half hours, Public Enemies kept me entertained, because Depp and Cotillard work well together, and Mann is able to dive right into the middle of the events. But there is something magical missing – in this case the poignant tension between law and crime, good and evil. Dillinger and Purvis are both far too unambiguous to form as explosive a pair as Hanna and McAuley.
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Here we have another opus in which Christian Bale plays second fiddle. This is also one of the reasons that Michael Mann did not achieve the perfection of his classic Heat, in which the protagonists were equal. Here, the star is Johnny Depp, or rather his Dillinger, a tough bank robber with a heart in the hands of his beloved Marion Cotillard. I also perceive the disadvantages of the digital camera (cheap home-made visuals, noise) as a handicap; what worked effectively in Cloverfield, because it is a mirror of current technological development and the definition of a new sub-genre, cannot work well in a gangster film set in the 1930s. Despite that, the film has numerous positive aspects. It is an elegantly directed, manly retro crime movie with a brilliant Depp, who is the film’s alpha and omega. It also has excellent shootouts, quality set designs and costumes, as well as great dialogue between Depp and Cotillard. Mann brilliantly captures the period atmosphere, makes the film dark in the proper noir fashion and doesn’t forget to pay homage to the golden age of Hollywood. Public Enemies is not as deep as Heat, but it’s not as shallow as Miami Vice. It’s something in between and even though I expected a little bit more, I’m still satisfied.
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A "Michael Mann film" with everything there is to love and hate about it. It's probably going to have a hard time getting through the movie theaters, judging by the reaction of the Johnny Depp fans sitting next to me when I was sitting in there, but it's a hot contender for the title of "film of the year."
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