Depp and Bale as Public Enemies

Rating: 6/10 (30 August 2009)

Depp and Bale as Public Enemies "But the best rejoinder to Public Enemies is Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal video, which I watched again after the singer-dancer's inevitable, untimely death. It's a tommy-gun gangster fantasia with a touch of Guys and Dolls, and it's everything Public Enemies isn't: madly inventive, genre-bending, a passionate tribute to the artist as outlaw-loner."
See nymag.com, daily, movies, 2009, 06, The_incidental_pleasures_of_pu.html
I can not remember so many restless fans at any big budget motion picture as this one. People got up for bathroom breaks, cell phone calls and greasy smelling popcorn.
But that is not the story. The story of Public Enemies is not the smooth and stoic good looks of Johnny Depp and Christian Bale either. The story is writer/director Michael Mann.
Mann has after all, created some enduring pieces of colloid art. He pitted Tom Cruise against Jamie Foxx in Collateral. He gave us Will Smith in Ali. He exposed Big Tobacco in The Insider with Russell Crowe.
But most importantly, Mann brought the heroic epic of great American literary writer, James Fenimore Cooper, to the screen with an incredible performance by Daniel Day Lewis in The Last of the Mohicans.
It is that masterful blend of music, courage, Madeline Stowe's good looks and the sheer beauty of a raw, untouched wilderness - all of which are ripe with the potential for a rich, prosperous future - that Mann attempts to recapture with Public Enemies.
Billie Crudup, who we saw in Almost Famous, gives a performance as a young, tough J. Edgar Hoover, with ever present Clyde Tolson by his side, which should give a serious notch up in his career.
So like Mohicans, this is three grim, determined men striving for their objectives, against all odds, regardless of cost. Unlike Mohicans however, this epic suffers.
Here there is no Stowe or wilderness beauty. Marion Cotillard gave a Oscar winning performance as singer Edith Piaf (2007), but her talent is wasted here as Dillinger's girlfriend. With a few exceptions, she just does not have the lines or the beauty to vault this over the top as another extra-ordinary Mann epic.
Depp? Of course, he is wonderful. Both he and Bale enjoy long close-ups that should make their agents happy. Yet there are little to endear either the Dillinger or FBI man Purvis characters to us. As Dillinger, Depp is no charming Warren Beatty, for example, in Bonnie and Clyde. We don't see his youth or scenes with his mentor.
Same with Bale. Mann uses Bale's narrow jaw to indicate Purvis' resolute determination to catch the bad guys, even if it means using techniques that a modern, enlighten citizenry finds squeamish, possibly immoral. But we never learn anything personal about Purvis. Otherwise, Bale does NOT have a lot of emotion or catchy lines either.
Here the musical score does not uplift the tale. It fills quiet scenes with heroic feeling, only to be punctuated with the incessant pop-pop chatter of Tommy-guns. Not even an appearance and song by smooth jazz great Diana Krall can lift the music of this film.
Lest you think "the lady doth protest too much," this is still a good film. I simply don't think it is worthy of a $10 go-see-it-now on the big screen ticket. Better make it a rental. One where you can go for bathroom breaks, cell phone calls and greasy popcorn without missing much.