Mann the Director Outclasses Mann the Writer

Rating: 8/10 (1 July 2009)

Public Enemies {dir. Michael Mann, 2009}
***/****
In telling the story of John Dillinger, it would seem that director Michael Mann had found the perfect fit for his personal aesthetic. Dillinger was a man of copious charm, and a taste for fine clothes,yet he was suitably cold blooded and violent when the situation called for it. Mann as a director who has always explored the lives of violent men, from Thief to Collateral, and his films have always looked impeccable However,in the end his new film Public Enemies is not the film it could have been. It ends up a middling Mann film, lacking the urgency of The Insider and the power of Heat (Mann's two best films.)
The picture opens auspiciously in 1933, with a thrilling jailbreak by Dillinger, who is introduced in glorious close up, and Johnny Depp playing Dillinger holds that shot like few other actors working. Mann utilizes the closeup to great effect throughout the movie. He and cinematographer Dante Spinotti make great use of the HD technology at their disposal, and they have much of the film resting on the power supplied by those closeups, fortunately Johnny Depp provides an alluring, menacing attractive quality. Later, we meet Dillinger's flame, Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard, very good in what is a poorly developed role) along with the two men in charge of capturing Dillinger, J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup in a very solid, multi-faceted performance) and Melvin Purvis (Christan Bale, in another one of the film's underwritten roles.) However, the most intriguing of the G-Men is Stphen Lang's Charles Winstead, the man who would eventually be the one to shoot Dillinger. Mann also name drops Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd, yet none of the peripheral characters are really given enough time or work to be more than quick walk-ons.
While this is a film with a number of startling and powerful scenes, it doesn't hang together as a cohesive whole. The audience observes, admires and moves on. I can't think of a film with so many great scenes that left me feeling so cold.
But, this is ultimately a good film. It contains strong work by the actors and Cotillard and Depp have add a sexual chemistry to their relationship. I would add the look to the list of things that work in the film. Obviously the costumes were quite excellent and the sets looked wonderful, but the cinematography was stunning. I was entertained by the film, at times enamored purely by the keen visual style on display. Mann seems to bring a new, almost documentarian, approach to the period piece. I only wish he and his fellow writers took those leaps with the script.
Although it features a fantastic lead performance from Johnny Depp and stunning HD photography (both of which are the best so far this year), the script needed some serious work. Some characters seem undefined and others (like Christan Bale's Melvin Purvis) are bland clichés. Mann and his fellow screenwriters don't even seem to know what they want to say about Dillinger the man. As a result the film is a vaguely satisfying, at times intoxicating. However, in the end it provides only a sketch of a man who deserves a full, fleshed out portrait.