Public Enemies

How in the world can you make a gangster movie with Johnny Depp into one of the most boring movies of the year? We’re talking gangsters and Tommy Guns and bank robberies and the cool way they stand on the side rail of the car while making a get away! Writer/director Michael Mann wants to talk about some silly love story? Idiot!

Set in 1933, Depp stars as John Dillinger – a thief who finds himself being arrested only 4 months after being paroled for previous crimes. However, Dillinger has bigger plans, and became a better criminal while in the joint, so he leads a daring escape when returned to the same jail where he was once held behind bars. The escapees join with him to go on a legendary string of bank robberies that propels him to a certain kind of stardom, but the stardom also draws the attention of the nation’s top legal and investigative minds.

When the Federal Bureau of Investigations steps in, names Dillinger one of the top public enemies in the country, and assigns its leading investigator, Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale), to track him down, will he be able to avoid capture?

Public Enemies needs to be more about the public enemies instead of focusing so much on Dillinger’s romantic life, which turns out to be the enemy of interesting and exciting filmmaking. Mann and his co-writers, Ronan Bennett and Ann Biderman (based on the novel by Bryan Burrough), leave out the fascinating details about Dillinger and how he became one of the most infamous criminals of the Depression. Mann and the gang leave out most of the investigation and efforts made by Purvis and the FBI to capture the elusive, cunning criminal. Then, the team doesn’t give us any insight into the planning and plotting to rob the banks. These stories and scenes can add intensity to Public Enemies and spark the audience’s imagination. This is what I wanted, not some lame, boring, flat, dispassionate love story.

Are Mann and the writing team trying to humanize Dillinger by harping on his love affair with Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard)? Who cares about that? I don’t need to like Dillinger for the movie to be compelling and exciting. If anything, we don’t get a sense of his brain power and treachery, and certainly don’t get a full picture of the man Purvis was as he struggled with the pursuit, his own emerging feelings about the FBI and more.

Public Enemies could be a battle of wits and wills. Instead, it’s a battle to stay awake.

Public Enemies is rated R for gangster violence and some language.