In a surprisingly spur-of-the-moment decision to spend a cloudy afternoon in my local Cineplex, a friend of mine and I decided to catch Michael Mann’s latest effort, Public Enemies. Honestly, the appeal of this movie for me centered on two things or, more specifically, people: Christian Bale, otherwise known as Batman, and my secret husband, Johnny Depp, otherwise known as Dreamy Johnny. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that I have an undying love for Dreamy Johnny. I think he is not only a beautiful, beautiful man but also an amazing actor, and he’s easily the most riveting part of any film he’s in, even if the film itself is an abysmal failure (Once Upon a Time in Mexico, much?). Well, at least most of the time he is. This time, the most riveting part of the film was not Dreamy Johnny or Batman but Marion Cotillard playing Dreamy Johnny’s paramour. And while the film had an interesting, even intriguing premise, it failed to deliver on its own potential, creating a decidedly ho-hum experience.
Public Enemies recreates the exploits of John Dillinger (Dreamy Johnny), notorious bank robber during the Great Depression, who was a mixture of folk hero and acrimonious public influence. Based on a book by Bryan Burroughs, the film follows the ambitious crime hunt undertaken by newly appointed director of the newly created Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup), who appoints Melvin Purvis (Batman), to engage in a manhunt of Dillinger and his crew, including Alvin Karvis (Giovanni Ribisi). In the process, Hoover deems Dillinger “Public Enemy Number One,” imbuing Purvis with the power to take Dillinger down by any means necessary, but Purvis clearly underestimates Dillinger’s ingenuity and reach into the criminal community and the public consciousness. After a series of shootouts and failed attempts at capture, Purvis realizes that his only means of catching Dillinger was to orchestrate betrayals unbeknownst to Dillinger and employ mercenaries to chase after the wily criminal. In the meantime, Dillinger tries frantically to hold onto the object of his fancy, a feisty coat check girl of mixed race named Billie Freshette (Cotillard), who is caught in the crossfire, much to her fear and rage.
Public Enemies began with a bang but failed to sustain any sort of meaningful engagement. The cinematography was by far the most impressive visual element. There was a hazy gray coloring every frame, almost as if to render the film black and white, even as the bright colors of Cotillard’s impressive period wardrobe popped from the screen. The lighting was subdued and sinister, accentuating the depiction of the Great Depression and the moral ambiguity of Dillinger’s exploits. The art direction was also fairly interesting, transforming modern-day locales, including Chicago, into places of a bygone era. The film was visually interesting, to say the least.
Unfortunately, the rest of the film was not. The pacing was consistently erratic. Michael Mann punctuated periods of true malaise and slow-moving action with his over-staged gunfights (that probably would not be as interesting in real life). The script, an adaptation from the source material, was truly poor, with some laughably stunted dialogue. Dreamy Johnny and Batman’s performances felt reduced to cookie-cutter outlines of their real-life inspirations, and since they are accomplished actors with many great performances under their belts, I have to attribute the lack of connection to their characters or the lack of any meaningful dialogue to the screenwriters and to Mr. Mann. The only interesting performance belonged to Cotillard. She infused her Billie with a spunk that was extremely watch-able, and I felt interested in the film only when she was on screen (except for the occasional swooning over Dreamy Johnny). Her performance was truly stunning and was markedly pitch-perfect casting in an otherwise less-than-perfect movie. Further, the supporting performances were as uninteresting as the leads, again in no small part attributable to the oddly basic and staccato dialogue rampant throughout the picture.
Ultimately, however, Public Enemies seemed to suffer from an obvious pretension that served to alienate the viewer, or at least me, from the film throughout most of my painful viewing experience. I felt Mr. Mann reaching for an artistic sensibility and an importance that the flaws in the script and his own direction prevented him from attaining. There were times when I felt bored and even frustrated with the boredom; after all, this was at movie theater prices that I saw this film. In many ways, Public Enemies was a disappointment both artistically and in its entertainment value.
That’s not to say that the film did not have the few good points that I listed above. Because the film seemed to be its own worst enemy in terms of being an effective historic revue of what should have been an interesting period, I feel the film merits a 6 for being cute but mediocre. The points it earned come from the few bright spots of technical cinematic excellence and, specifically, Cotillard’s fiery portrayal of Freshette. As to the test, I cannot say this film passes, sadly. There are other films in which I can enjoy Dreamy Johnny and Batman, after all, and not every film can be worth the celluloid on which it is published – and this one, arguably, is not.