Most disappointing movie of the year!
Written: Jul 06 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Loud tommy-guns!
Cons: Poor direction, script & cinematography...and that's just for starters.
The Bottom Line: 2.5 hours that felt like 5. Just, simply, a movie that fails right from the start.
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| rmurray847's Full Review: Public Enemies |
It’s hard to overstate how disappointed I was in PUBLIC ENEMIES. Almost every aspect of the film was a letdown. You’ve got folks like Johnny Depp and Michael Mann on board, and yet the result is long, sloppy and worst of all, BORING.
Director Michael Mann (HEAT, LAST OF THE MOHICANS) seemed like a great choice for this subject matter. An epic take on the true story of ‘30s era bank robber extraordinaire John Dillinger and Melvin Purvis, the FBI man who led the manhunt for “Public Enemy #1.” A huge opportunity for exquisite period details. A chance to create some unforgettable gunbattles, featuring Tommy Guns…the old-style machine gun we just don’t see in movies these days. And a cast to die for, including Depp at Dillinger, Christian Bale as Purvis, Billy Crudup as J. Edgar Hoover and even newly minted Oscar-winner Marion Cottiliard at Billie, Dillinger’s girlfriend.
Mistake #1 was to film most of this on digital video. It makes almost the entire movie murky, dark and slightly blurry. Perhaps I shouldn’t have expected something with the pristine, crystal-clear look of something like Scorsese’s THE AVIATOR…but I did. And after seeing how Mann’s film looked, I wish even more so that my assumptions had been correct. There may be excellent costume design and art direction in PUBLIC ENEMIES…but you can’t tell because of the poor quality of image.
Mistake #2 was a script that never develops ANY character. We get virtually no background on Dillinger…he shows up to execute a prison break for some of his buddies and we’re apparently already supposed to know all about him. While I’m not asking for flashbacks of his youth or anything, I’d at least liked to have known what made him tick. He apparently liked fast cars and high living…but Depp plays everything very somber and straight-faced. Dillinger comes across as a stick-in-the-mud who doesn’t know how to have fun. Perhaps years of being chased have made him this way…but that’s only guesswork on my part. The script (and yes, the performance by Depp) give us almost nothing to work with. In the end, we care nothing for Depp. And we care nothing for the group of cohorts who pop in and out of his life. He’s always got various men around him, but we never really learn anything about any of them…I didn’t even learn the names of anyone except Baby Face Nelson…and that, only because I knew that name from previous movies about Depression-era gangsters. It took me awhile to figure out which actor was playing him though. So there were no gangsters that I really cared about.
Mistake #3 was in having too many action scenes that made no sense. The opening jailbreak, for example…I couldn’t really tell who was doing what. Yes, I understand that shoot-outs and such are chaotic (like a miniature war battle)…but shouldn’t we still have some sense of who is who and what they’re trying to do? There were a couple of scenes like that…not sure if it was poor editing or poor conception or poor direction.
Mistake #4 was making the movie 2.5 hours. I have no problem with a movie being long if it is involving. None of the LORD OF THE RINGS movies was a chore to sit through. GONE WITH THE WIND still holds me with no problem. But PUBLIC ENEMY had me squirming and looking at my watch like some kid dragged to an adult romance movie.
There were moments that worked…just enough to make me regret even more how poor most of the film was. There was a lengthy gun-battle, chase scene in a Wisconsin wood that was quite stirring. It featured the blasting of Tommy guns and lots of sweaty gangsters and FBI men running around. The only action scene that worked.
There was a brief story about Dillinger using a craft attorney (well-played by Peter Geharty) to keep him from being transferred from a local jail to the state pen. It was funny and interesting at the same time. Towards the end of the film, Cotilliard’s Billie actually manages to generate some sympathy during her protracted interrogation by a thug-like FBI man. And Lord help me, but Christian Bale actually managed to be somewhat interesting. He plays a very tight and very determined G-man…seething at how often Dillinger thwarts him. Bale is not a favorite of mine, but his work here was credible.
I mentioned Scorsese earlier. While it’s almost too easy to play this card, I believe now that if an EPIC film about Dillinger was needed…he would have been the best man to go to. I’ve enjoyed Mann’s work in the past, and he’s certainly handled lengthy work before (I’m a big MOHICAN fan)…but somehow he fumbled quite badly here. Certainly, Scorsese would at least put his movie on FILM and not Digital video.
And for Depp, I’m sure this is just a momentary blip in his stellar career. I do think it shows that he is not the man for the job if you need a quiet, contained, closed-off character. Depp needs room to be expansive. Towards the end of the film, Dillinger brazenly wanders into the offices of the very office charged with catching him. Most of the staff is either gone or listening to a ball game on the radio, so Dillinger is able to wander around, looking at all the evidence gathered about him. We see glee dancing in Depp’s eyes…he FINALLY made Dillinger come to life, but it was more than 2 hours too late.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
rmurray847
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Location: Albuquerque, NM
Reviews written: 323
Trusted by: 37 members
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See many more reviews of mine at www.afilmcritic.com
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