Letdown

Rating: 4/10 (21 December 2009)

With such strong a strong cast in the main characters, Depp and Bale, I had my expectations set high right from the beginning. I found myself siding with the villains as the movie progressed, specifically with Dillinger, constantly hoping that he would prevail over Purvis. Depp was very good and he successfully managed to portray Dillinger as a "Robin Hood" type figure; however, we never see the good nor the bad prevailing in the end.
The plot was a continual cliff-hangar that came to no real conclusion. At the end of the movie, I found myself in awe of how I had just spent the past 2 hours watching a movie that had built up such a storyline and let it come crashing down like a house of cards, only to have no real ending. The ending reminded me of The Departed, similar in a way that it leaves the audience with no real sense of closure, with more questions than answers. It's as if the directors became tired with the storyline and decided to conclude all of a sudden in the easiest way possible. I constantly found myself checking to see when the movie would end, believing that there would be a great hook that would take me by surprise.
For those of you who do not wish to receive an spoilers do not read further. I make the allusion to The Departed because at the conclusion, I felt as if the easiest way to end the movie was for everyone to die--quite similar to this movie. Throughout the movie I began to grow a bit of sympathy for Dillinger as the rest of his crew and loved ones die or fade away, hoping that he would manage to prevail simply for that reason. I couldn't find any purpose in the storyline as a result of all the deaths because I felt left with a single moral, don't rob banks, and no sense of enjoyment.
All in all I wouldn't recommend the movie for those hoping for any sort of twist or turn. The plot is entertaining but pointless in the end. I apologize if the comment seems scattered, it's my first user comment and I felt it was necessary to write because of how agitated I am for having watched a movie with such potential only to end so loosely and easily.