Public Enemies (2009)
Director - Michael Mann
Starring - Johnny Depp & Christian Bale
3.5 stars
There were two main reasons why I wanted to see this. One - the hype. It's been pumped up as one of the best films of the year so I'd be crazy not to see what all the fuss was about. Two - Johnny Depp. Who better to have leading this juggernaut then the greatest actor in the land?
The whole John Dillinger story is relatively unknown to me, and on this particular occasion, I actually would rather have been privy to information about his life and story. In some cases, not knowing the true facts about a film can be brilliant and somewhat liberating but in 'Public Enemies' I think it would have been better to know a little bit about Dillinger's timeline.
The main reason being that the movie appeared to rush itself a little bit. His back story was touched on briefly throughout the films entirety but some things like his relationship with Billie seemed to be incredibly fast tracked. In fairness to director Michael Mann, I'm sure Dillinger's journey is more complex then what he can put in a 2 hour 23 minute film but conveying relationship development between the lead couple should be far more clear cut than what was on screen. Cinema Studies 101, Mann!
Johnny Depp was, as expected, fantastic. He captured the character well and I believe is one of very few that could have pulled off such a versatile role. The man is a genius - living legend if you will. Christian Bale was also very good as number one cop Melvin Purvis (who had the unenviable job of trying to stop the ever elusive John Dillinger) which is interesting because I don't overly like him as an actor. I may have to start to revise that notion because his last few performances have been quite to my liking. The man can act.
The music was great - one of the highlights of the film. It was all era-relevant and the instrumental piece played during the numerous bank robbing scenes helped to not only illustrate a sign of time times, but its jovial tune portrayed Dillinger and co. as men who aren't pure evil (as there occupation may suggest) and just having "too good a time today to be thinking about tomorrow".
It was a pretty good movie all up. Not revolutionary by any stretch of the imagination and more or less what I expected it to be. My biggest qualm was the rushed nature of the storyline and slight (only very slight) lack of flow in the overall body of the movie.
Do I recommend it? Here's a better question - does it matter? You guys are going to watch 'Public Enemies' regardless of what I have to say and so you should. Whether you enjoy it or not you should still go and see it. Everyone loves a good hype and I'm sure this will be one of those movies that in 10 years time when someone says, 'Nah, I've never seen Public Enemies', a hush will go over the room and they'll most likely lose a number of friends.
See it, get in on the hype, but don't expect miracles.
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