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You know that really excited feeling you get when you find out your
favorite actor is coming out with a new movie--not just any actor, the
one that you would pay your last dollar to see? For me, that's Johnny
Depp. I’ve seen everything he's been in. I own Don Juan DeMarco. I unreasonably think his movies are better than they actually are. I want to hang out with him. I think he is the epitome of cool. So, keep that all in mind.

Public Enemies is the story of John Dillinger (Depp) and his escapades
in the mid ‘30s as the most notorious bank robber of the Depression
era. Dillinger claims to be able to “take any bank, wherever he wants,
whenever he wants,” and he shows that to be true, much to the dismay
of the federal government. Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) is appointed
head of the Dillinger Division of the FBI and starts hunting down the
Dillinger gang. Despite consistently managing to slip through authority’s fingers, Dillinger begins to see the writing on the wall as his heyday winds down.

More after the jump.

The mechanics on this film are excellent--it is absolutely beautiful.
Say what you will about director Michael Mann’s choice to shoot the
film in DV, but the colors are rich and well placed against the wash of
drab colors associated with the Depression era. Like adding salt and pepper,
Mann perfectly spiced Public Enemies with stylistic accents masterfully sprinkled throughout, like providing just enough slow motion to catch your eye before you blinked. The sound was expertly used to capture the grittiness of certain scenes, to the point I almost thought something was wrong with the theater’s speakers before I realized voices were purposefully muffled and quiet. It is hauntingly quiet at times and loud when it should be, namely during the multitude of bank robberies and shootouts.

Depp brings a laissez-faire debonair quality to Dillinger and portrays the endearing heartlessness of bank robber well. Bale didn’t seem to have his heart in it, but Billy Crudup was fantastic as J. Edgar Hoover, and the collective cast of supporting characters did a good job making their characters memorable.

However, I caught myself liking it less than I thought I would. Unfortunately, Public Enemies just doesn’t have “it.” The film lacks that certain intangible element that grabs you and pulls you in so deep that you forget about everything else. All of the elements that make a great film are there, but this time the whole is not greater than the sum of all its parts. Dillinger and Purvis are poorly developed characters that I was never able to connect with. Their lone meeting in an Indiana jail cell, pitting Depp versus. Bale and was disappointingly flat.

Public Enemies is a very entertaining film and well worth seeing, but it falls short of greatness when it comes so close. The star powered duo of Depp and Bale are good in their own right but lack the chemistry to take the film to the next level, despite Michael Mann’s best effort to be the Phil Jackson of movie directors.

--Mark Collins

 


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