Thanks for checking out our Public Enemies review. If you’d like to see the video version of our Public Enemies review you can see it at the bottom of this post.
Exactly how much potential can one movie have? A Michael Mann film staring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale about a famous bank robber? Before day one of shooting this movie has the makings of an instant classic. Granted, Mann’s last directorial outing was not his best effort (2006’s Miami Vice), but his previous 5 films in a row were all fantastic (Collateral, Ali, Heat, The Insider, The Last of the Mohicans). Much here to be excited about.
Did Public Enemies live up to its huge potential? Well… no… not really.
THE BASIC IDEA
The synopsis for Public Enemies reads something like this: “In the action-thriller Public Enemies, acclaimed filmmaker Michael Mann directs Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Academy Award® winner Marion Cotillard in the incredible and true story of legendary Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger (Depp)the charismatic bank robber whose lightning raids made him the number one target of J. Edgar Hoovers fledgling FBI and its top agent, Melvin Purvis (Bale), and a folk hero to much of the downtrodden public. No one could stop Dillinger. No jail could hold him. His charm and audacious jailbreaks endeared him to almost everyonefrom his girlfriend Billie Frechette (Cotillard) to an American public who had no sympathy for the banks that had plunged the country into the Depression. But while the adventures of Dillingers ganglater including the sociopathic Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham)thrilled many, Hoover (Billy Crudup) hit on the idea of exploiting the outlaws capture as a way to elevate his Bureau of Investigation into the national police force that became the FBI. He made Dillinger Americas first Public Enemy Number One. Hoover sent in Purvis, the dashing Clark Gable of the FBI. However, Dillinger and his gang outwitted and outgunned Purvis men in wild chases and shootouts. Only after importing a crew of Western ex-lawmen (newly baptized as agents) who were real gunfighters and orchestrating epic betrayals from the infamous Lady in Red to the Chicago crime boss Frank Nittiwere Purvis and the FBI able to close in on Dillinger.”
THE GOOD
It feels like a bit of a cop out to talk about how good Johnny Depp is in a movie, but he’s so good in this project that I just have to bring it up. Depp is fantastic as the lead character John Dillinger. From the first minute he’s on the screen (which is the first minute of the movie) you buy into the character instantly. You forget that you’re looking at Johnhy Depp and only see the outlaw bank robber. He also successfully does what this movie NEEDED to happen… have you as an audience member feel sympathetic, or even cheer for, the “bad guy”. His dialog is spoken with great conviction, he expression and movement never feel out of place and his screen presence is always captivating. A great, and potentially Oscar nomination worthy performance from Depp.
Despite the fact that the trailers for the film offer lots in the “action” department, I really wasn’t expecting much from the film. I was wrong. The action sequences in Public Enemies push everything right to the edge of reality while managing never to cross that line into “Michael Bay” kind of silly over the top action (which is fine for movies like Transformers… but not Public Enemies). Mann has you on the edge of your seat without ever being pulled out of the movie because of some wild unbelievable stunt or over emphasized explosions.
I can’t write this review without mentioning the performance of Stephen Lang who plays agent Charles Winstead in the film. His role is relatively small and he doesn’t have a load of screen time, but dear heavens every single second he’s on the screen he OWNS it… doesn’t matter if Bale or Depp are on the screen too. As a federal agent specially brought in to help hunt Dillinger, he scared the crap out of me. The guy doesn’t even need to SAY anything… his glare alone makes you want to crap your pants. He’s also in the final scene of the movie making it probably one of the most powerful moments of the film.
Doing any sort of period piece brings along the challenge of brining the audience back to that time and emerging them in it. Mann and company do that with incredible detail. Not just the settings or the remarkable costuming (which I’ll be SHOCKED if they don’t get an Oscar nomination for this), but also the dialog and acting. You really felt like you were in the 1930’s, and when that happens the movie has a head start.
THE BAD
I’ve never had to write these words before… but here it goes. I did not like the performance of Christian Bale in this movie. It almost hurts to write that, but it’s true. You can tell from the story and the dialog that his character, FBI Agent Melvin Purvis, was supposed to be a strong company man, but also with some conflict and a hint of doubt. Bale fails in the film to bring any of that to the screen. For the most part Bale comes across as a monotone robot without any sense of inner conflict or emotion. The film was set up in a way to be a stron character conflict sort of story… Bale vs. Depp… but only Depp showed up. Very disappointing, but I’m sure he’ll bounce back. He’s too good of an actor not too.
A few short hours before going to see the screening of Public Enemies, a film critic friend of mine who saw it already said something strange to me. He said “The movie feels like Mann ripping himself off by just remaking Heat“. I don’t know if I’d completely agree with him, but if you’ve seen Heat you can’t deny a lot of the subtext and themes were very similar with Johnny Depp filling in for Robert De Niro and Bale for Pacino. Once I recognized some of the similarities it became a bit of a distraction.
The love story between Depp’s Dillinger and Marion Cotillard’s Billie felt flat and completely lifeless. There was absolutely zero spark or chemistry between the two on screen, and the movie never once makes you feel like any passion existed. Dillinger just sees her and instantly falls madly in love with her and we as the audience are never given anything to believe in it. It just is, and you need to just accept it. That’s fine for some movies, but when is love for this movie is such a motivating factor in several of the things he does, it helps if we can believe in it.
My complaint about the lack of story development for the love interest in the film can really be applied to the movie as a whole. I never felt there was a flow to the story… things just happen, and then the next thing happens and so on and so forth. It felt like a sting of good scenes just thrown together in some random order.
OVERALL
Public Enemies ends up being a good film with a couple of fantastic performances that successfully transports you back to the 1930’s in the world of John Dillinger, but a few lacking performances, a poor story flow and the failure to develop key elements of the story leaves you feeling wanting and wishing the movie had more substance. I still enjoyed it, but it doesn’t live up to it’s huge potential. I give Public Enemies a 6.5 out of 10.
(VIDEO REVIEW COMING LATER TODAY)
