Blurry And Dark

Rating: Null/10 (30 March 2010)

Chicago's Biograph Theater and immediate surroundings in the film's final fifteen minutes look authentically 1930s. And the accompanying sense of impending climax captures a growing drama. The ending of "Public Enemies" thus makes for absorbing viewing, helped along by the realization that these events actually happened.
That said, I find little of interest in this mostly factual account of public enemy number one, John Dillinger (Johnny Depp), and attempts by Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) to catch him, under the watchful eye of J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup). Though the period-piece sets and era music are fine, the film suffers from two big flaws.
First, despite the focus on Dillinger, the script overwhelms the audience with too many background characters, all of whom seem nondescript and confusingly intrusive. I counted 43 characters significant enough to earn a "biography". The total list of characters exceeds a hundred. The film purports to be a biography of "public enemies", namely Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, and their sidekicks. But all these added people blur the story, and render a very impersonal account.
Second, the film's lighting trends dark, and as unhelpful as the script. Faces merge together. There's lots of hubbub and "action". I can barely remember any of it, apart from those final fifteen minutes, and one other segment wherein Dillinger walks nonchalantly into a police station room devoted to his capture. But, in general, the lighting compounds the confusion with regard to characters and plot.
Overall performances trend dull and wooden. Depp is a terrific actor. But he's dull here. Christian Bale gives as wooden a performance as I have ever seen. Other actors leave little or no impression.
Sound effects are good, especially the sounds of gunfire.
One gets the impression that the film's director aimed for a particular style of storytelling. If so, the results don't work, at least for me. There are many good true-life gangster films out there. "Public Enemies" isn't one of them.