The Fresh Films Review: Public Enemies (2009)

Public Enemies (2009)

Directed by:
Michael Mann

COUNTRY
USA

GENRE
Crime/Thriller/Drama/
Historical

NORWEGIAN TITLE
Public Enemies

RUNNING TIME
140 minutes

Produced by:
Michael Mann
Kevin Misher

Written by (based on a book by Bryan Burrough):
Ronan Bennett
Michael Mann
Add Biderman

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
John Dillinger	Johnny Depp	½
Melvin Purvis	Christian Bale	½
Billie Frechette	Marion Cotillard	½
Pretty Boy Floyd	Channing Tatum	½
Alvin Karpis	Giovanni Ribisi
Homer Van Meter	Stephen Dorff
J. Edgar Hoover	Billy Crudup
Polly Hamilton	Leelee Sobieski

Review

Michael Mann takes us back to the gritty, anonymous 1930s using the most revealing and edgy in digital technology. His love for hard images and sounds makes Public Enemies a contradictory experience – it brings us closer to the action but farther away from the 1930s. And it's not particularly flattering either. The film also has problems getting us underneath the skin of its protagonist, John Dillinger, leaving Johnny Depp's slick performance mainly a superficial one, but that may well have been expected or perhaps even the point. What Mann does here in presenting the legend of the so-called public enemies of the Great Depression is letting this legend live on. It's an engaging film that excels at depicting action scenes and bringing life to a conventionally unconventional love story. The latter grows from unconvincing to heartfelt during the course of the film, and Johnny Depp and Marion Cotillard both shine with beauty, even if they are better separately than together. One of the most disappointing aspects of Public Enemies is Mann's failure to link Dillinger's status as a national hero to the hard times of the Depression. On the other hand, Billy Crudup's multi-faceted depiction of J. Edgar Hoover is a bonus, and the ending is satisfying, both from a historical perspective and a narrative perspective.