Public Enemies

Near the end of Public Enemies, surely no real spoiler, John Dillinger is watching the movie, Manhattan Melodrama in Chicago's Biograph Theater. In the 1934 film, Clark Gable plays a gangster, Edward "Blackie" Gallagher, and we briefly watch select scenes as Dillinger is watching them. I realized then how much Public Enemies is an example of a very traditional gangster movie with a stylish patina. I mean that in a good way.

When there's a solid story to tell, you don't want the film to be about the director, but about the narrative. Sweeney Todd suffered as a film when it kept ebbing into Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd, and away from the work of art it was of its own standing. The story of John Dillinger remains such a compelling one that Michael Mann smartly offers the tale audiences want to see without distraction. Yes, there's the handheld, HD camerawork that shows each of Johnny Depp's pores, but it also brings a sense of immediacy to the film that adds to the tension. A few of the music choices seem odd and out of place, but there are points gained for the plaintive folk music and Billie Holliday recordings that are spot on for the time and place.

Expectedly, Johnny Depp is a believable, human John Dillinger. The movie doesn't glorify him, though in reality, Dillinger was something of a folk hero to the Depression-era public. His flaws and narcissism are in plain view, but you do cheer his escapes, you do hope he can avoid his inevitable end. That's not to say Christian Bale's Melvin Purvis is the bad guy. He's noble and dedicated and not without compassion. The problem is that Christian Bale keeps playing unsmiling roles that involve, primarily, talking sternly. He makes a strong Purvis, but it feels like he's played the role before. Johnny Depp and Christian Bale were so evenly matched you wanted both their characters to succeed, but knew only one could do so.

Marion Cotillard is almost luminous as Dillinger's girlfriend, Billie Frenchette. There is one scene in which she's so brutalized that it shocks, in part because by that point, she's already won the audience over to her side.

Public Enemies is a very, very good film. Perhaps the one thing keeping it from being great is that there's not quite enough depth to the character development. Then again, if you've read a John Dillinger biography, you know he wasn't a complex man. He did, in fact, rob banks and like fast cars and pretty women. And, in Public Enemies, they capture that man perfectly.