> Public Enemies
Director: Michael Mann
Cast: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Billy Crudup, Marion Cotillard, Jason Clarke, David Wenham, Channing Tatum, Branka Katic, Stephen Graham, Giovanni Ribisi
Rating: (R16)
5 stars (out of 5)
Reviewed By Christine Powley
Gangsters and movies have always gone together. Once the criminals were fictional but now we seem to prefer historical crime.
Public Enemies (Rialto and Hoyts) is really about one public enemy, John Dillinger (Johnny Depp), who spent his 20s in prison and then went on a one-year crime spree that made him a folk hero.
This is an oddly lumpy movie.
I am giving it the highest rating because while I was watching I was totally immersed and sympathetic to the style.
However, once the credits started to roll any number of reservations immediately occurred.
I am sticking with my original assessment that this is a great film but it is one that many will find unengaging and irritatingly inaccurate.
Depp's Dillinger is the whole movie.
He is always moving and the people around him come and go with little explanation.
It is frankly confusing.
The action scenes are good - Dillinger breaking in and out of prison, robbing banks and running submachine-gun battles with the Feds.
It all looks great. Director Michael Mann has even gone to the trouble of filming in the real locations, which makes his decision to jumble the chronology up even stranger.
So while it all happened, different people were involved and at different times.
Best thing: Johnny Depp is the only person here who does not think Dillinger is a swell guy. His performance is full of tics and ambivalence, racking up the tension as we wait for the mask to drop.
Worst thing: Christian Bale as the FBI guy is fine but he really needs to do a comedy role, fast. If he gets any more intense he is going to self-combust.
See it with: An interest in celebrity as much as gangsters. When Dillinger holds a jailhouse press conference he sets a template that is still followed.
