hopinet

Public Enemies

9th July 2009

Public Enemies is the latest offering from Michael Mann, it tells the ‘true’ story of John Dillinger (Johnny Depp). Dillinger was a bank robber in the 1930s, I know very little about him other than bits I have read (by all accounts Michael Mann plays with the truth a fair bit). He was very charismatic and became some what of a folk hero to the common public.

No one seemed to be able to stop Dillinger even the prisons couldn’t hold him. J. Edgar Hoovers head of a very young FBI made Dillinger Public Enemy Number 1 and sent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) to capture him. The film follows Dillinger as he continues to rob banks while being chased by Purvis. Marion Cotillard also stars as Billie Frechette, Dillinger’s girlfriend.

Playing around with the truth is not Public Enemies biggest crime, it misses the mark on so many occasions. There are some OK performances from the main cast, nothing special but watchable, but that sums it up for me it’s just an OK film. In general I found some of the direction distinctly average and the development of the characters was just non-existant and you are left just not caring about any of them. I also thought it was an overly drawn out affair, with some scenes not serving any purpose so it felt like a long 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Overall it wasn’t a disaster of a movie but it just lacked too much to make it an enjoyable experience. Some vaguely enjoyable action sequences, a nice little cameo by Diana Krall (a very good musician) as a nightclub torch singer and some good attention to detail in the sets (classic cars, radios) and clothing made it bearable.

More information at IMDB