For a film that boasts two of the world's top-grossing box office stars—Johnny Depp and Christian Bale—knee-deep in a story steeped in American mythology—the great gangsters of the Depression—Public Enemies sure is kind of blah. Directed by Michael Mann, you'd think this would be like... well, gangbusters. But except for a few bravura scenes (especially the shoot-out at Little Bohemia), the movie is choppy, a little too long, and severely disjointed.
Adapted from the excellent history book of the same name by author Bryan Burrough, Mann and company pare down the cast of characters to the Melvin Purvis (Bale) vs. John Dillinger (Depp) storyline. (Burrough's book was a fairly-comprehensive history of the life and times of numerous Depression era bad guys, including Bonnie and Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, Alvin Karpis, and Ma Barker and her brood.) Both Bale and Depp are excellent, as is Marion Cotillard as Billie Frenchette, Dillinger's soulmate. Billy Crudup makes for an appropriately conceited and fussy J. Edgar Hoover, and everyone else pretty much looks like they stepped out of a Walker Evans photo, as does the entire film, albeit in color. But while Mann does a great job of recreating the physical era, he fails at recreating the hero worship and excitement that surrounded the bad guys in a time when everyone was broke and looking for a Robin Hood. Even with an actor as charismatic and watchable as Depp, it's hard to get excited about anything in this movie.
Dillinger and company were hardened criminals, not worthy of any kind of worship, but they sure are a lot more fun than the Bernie Madoffs and AIG bigwigs of the world. Too bad Public Enemies doesn't make better use of that fun.
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