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Mann shoots blanks in 'Public Enemies'
Universal Pictures
Johnny Depp as John Dillinger wields the heavy artillery — but little character development — in director Michael Mann’s gangster epic "Public Enemies."
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Published: June 30, 2009
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Everyone knows gangster movies offer, in part, pure fantasy — a glorification of a violent, dead-end (literally) lifestyle. "Public Enemies" provides that aspect of gangster films in industrial-size amounts.
What it doesn't do is give you a reason to care about the film's main character, infamous 1930s outlaw John Dillinger, providing little more than a romanticized portrait.
Despite the presence of a wealth of talent — Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and director Michael Mann — this movie is less epic than episodic.
"I want everything, and I want it right now," Dillinger (Depp) tells his girlfriend, Billie (Marion Cotillard) at one point. In another line — featured prominently in the trailer — Dillinger tells Billie, "I like baseball, movies, good clothes, fast cars and you. What else do you need to know?"
He may as well be speaking to the movie audience. In the hands of Mann ("Miami Vice," "Heat"), it's motivation enough. The director seems more concerned, as always, with stylized visuals and intense action sequences. (An aside: Mann shot the film with digital cameras, and some of it almost has a "shot on video" feel. On the other hand, there are images that are among the clearest and most eye-popping I've seen on screen.)
The film opens as Dillinger springs fellow gang members from prison. We never learn much about the other gang members; they are there to kill or be killed. This film concerns itself only with Dillinger and Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale), the FBI agent who leads the effort to hunt him down.
We soon meet Purvis as he kills Pretty Boy Floyd, another notorious bank robber from the period. (This is a departure from history; Dillinger actually was killed before Floyd.) The gangsters are folk heroes to an America in the depths of the Depression. But a young J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup) is using the bank robbers as a reason to beef up the fledgling Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Purvis is his new golden boy.
Unfortunately, this subplot — how 1930s bank robbers led to expanded power for federal police agencies — is never fully explored. Neither is another involving the Mafia's loathing of Dillinger, although the film hints organized crime might have had a hand in his downfall.
As history tells us, Purvis eventually gets his man — only to have Dillinger commit another amazing jail break. But he has a famous date with destiny at a Chicago theater.
Although the movie looks great and the set pieces are, in themselves, worth going to see for action fans, the movie fails to sustain momentum or interest through its long running time. The end, when it comes, is less poignant than it is a relief.
MOVIE REVIEW
Public Enemies **
MOVIE BOARD RATING: R; gangster violence and some profanity
STARS: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard
DIRECTOR: Michael Mann
PLOT SUMMARY: A film that documents the cat-and-mouse game between 1930s bank robber John Dillinger and FBI agent Melvin Purvis, who is trying to bring him to justice
RUNNING TIME: 140 minutes
ON THE WEB: www.publicenemies.net
Movies are rated on a scale of zero to four stars. Kevin Walker can be reached at (813) 259-7975.
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