Public Enemies Review
Listen, Michael Mann made Heat and he can pretty much coast for the rest of his career and I would still think he’s a genius.
But really in many of Mann’s films there’s a sort of clinical closeness that’s distancing, he’s not the type of filmmaker that you’d expect to see a Forrest Gump type movie from ever. In The Insider, Ali and even yes, Heat there’s this intelligent no-fuss zero-sappy approach that makes it a little tough to access the characters.
Now Heat worked because we really got to know the lead cop and criminal, we met their families, saw them with their girlfriends/wives, etc.
For whatever reason, be it the weight of putting a based-on-a-true-story tale onscreen or what, that is not the case with Public Enemies.
The story is of famed bank robber John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) and his pursuer, Agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale).
Now we get to spend plenty of time with Dillinger and yes we get a sense of him as a person but even though he seems nicer than the average crook it’s tough to root for him. He is still robbing banks, obviously the cops will try to arrest him.
As for Melvin Purvis, once again Christian Bale is locked into a role where he isn’t allowed to emote on a wide variation (the other instance being Terminator Salvation). His Purvis is like a guided missile, all focus with only the occasional hints of vulnerability and human emotion snuck in by Bale and the few genuinely moving moments in his story.
Basically the FBI is under pressure to perform and is embarassed by their inability to keep Dillinger in jail. So Purvis starts bending some rules to take down Dillinger, and seems a bit conflicted about it.
But without seeing more of Purvis the man, his home life, just generally knowing more about his value system we don’t really get the grand arc of a man losing himself in pursuit of a criminal. Maybe that wouldn’t be true to reality, I don’t know.
But as a work of entertainment this arc is not capitalized on. The best part of this movie is when Bale physically lifts Dillinger’s literally tortured girlfriend Billie (Marion Cotillard) and takes her to the bathroom, away from being mercilessly tortured. That’s a clear, strong character moment. There aren’t enough of those.
The decision to shoot in digital is most appreciated in the night scenes, which are stunning and feel really unique in the level of detail you can see. It’s not enough to make up for the uninvolving story though.
Still, a few fun sidenotes.
Tommy!
Stephen Graham, who played Tommy in Snatch, has a lot of fun overacting just a smidge as wild criminal Baby Face Nelson.
War on Crime
Billy Crudup is borderline cartoonish in his delivery as J. Edgar Hoover, but again it’s kind of fun, something this film is sorely lacking.
Otis Taylor, “10 Million Slaves”
That’s the great song from the trailer, which is also played a few times in the film. It’s just a wonderful, haunting song. It totally fits the film this movie wanted to be.
Rest of the score
The actual swooning score of the film in context feels overblown, like the movie is trying to convince you no, this is really a big deal, care. The story is not able to capture enough interest for the music to work.
-Dan Benamor