Public Enemies

During the first twenty minutes of Public Enemies, all I could think about was the shaky camera work and how it was making me quite nauseous. Then I was re-introduced to the glory of fine cheekbones (Johnny Depp) and finer cheekbones that could cut steel (Christian Bale). And well...guys look really good in tailored suits, dark overcoats, and fedoras. The rest of the movie was just that exciting.

Johny Depp makes a cute and rather repressed John Dillinger, that infamous bank robber in 1933. He traipses around the country having a grand time (at least in the first half of the movie) and dazzling a fiery French girl (Marion Cotilliard) while being chased by a young and rather incompetent FBI, led by an intense Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale). Unfortunately, there's absolutely no suspense in this lethargic cat and mouse game. Dillinger seems to be doing his own thing most of the time, and Purvis is too busy trying to teach his incompetent men that a stake out requires staying in a place for a looooooong time (almost as long as this movie).

Michael Mann pays loving attention to detail, historical facts (though not necessarily accuracy), and ends up with a bit of a mess, and an uninteresting mess at that. There are too many names nonchalantly thrown into the fray, and everyone looks like a cookie cutter white male in the 1930s except for Depp, Bale, and Cotilliard (who's a woman). Criminals enter haphazardly left and right on both ends of the gun barrel, taking the focus away from the main characters. One wonders if Public Enemies would be better if it had just embraced its ensemble cast instead of wobbling in limbo.

A master of making some good action movies without much action, Mann falls flat here by not keeping the story focused. With only artsy gun fights, the whole needs a tight structure to hold it together. Instead, we get a smattering of fragments and not a lot of emotion. Although there's character development, there's nothing that makes us care about John Dillinger (even Bale's wooden Purvis probably racks up more sympathy points with the viewer). The scenes are filmed well if chaotically, but the entire package just feels like it had the life sucked out of it. After two hours, I didn't care if Dillinger was going to hell; I just wanted him to go somewhere else.

Lest I bash Public Enemies too much, let me state that the movie wasn't bad at all. It wasn't great, but I'll be the first to admit that I had pretty high expectations going in. A few of the scenes are shot beautifully and crisply, especially the action scenes. One wishes that Michael Mann would be a little less detail-oriented and cared less about his source material. A bit of energy would be nice, especially from Depp and Bale. Marion Cotilliard certainly did her part in trying to revive the beast, but she was the only one. It's not likely that Public Enemies will be up for any Oscars (even with the bloated expansion in the Best Picture category), except maybe in costume design.