Disjointed, Haphazard, & Jarring

Rating: 4/10 (24 January 2012)

If you want a film where you are thrust into an action sequence, bullets flying, glass breaking, and all around chaos erupting onto a screen wrapped in shiny foil and a filling of movie stars that don't save the film, this poor excuse for a film might interest you. You will see characters shot and killed without a discernible identity, and you will be confused and lost during most of the film. You may find yourself asking "Did Babyface Nelson get shot or was it that other nameless gang member?" The lackluster, poor semblance of plot together with utter failure of maintaining an engaging narrative leaves you with a bad taste in you mouth. The film begins to seem like scenes of poorly written dialogue, aimed at filling time while leaving the audience waiting for a gunfight to break out, obviously feeding into the action oriented thirst that masses of movie-going meat-heads seek out in theaters today. The gaps and structure just leaves you wondering how in the hell was this adapted from a book? The only explanation is that they omitted 2 chapters every time they crafted a collection of scenes from one. The shaky, Blair Witch-esque camera work was worse and more jarring than that of Cloverfield. A perfect analogy would be rolling yourself down an enormous steep hill within a garbage can.
On the more positive note, Johnny Depp's portrayal of John Dillinger was excellent, as was his lover's, played by Marion Cotillard. However, their relationship seemed to be nothing more than Dillinger finding and holding onto a piece of ass that was madly in love with him and seemed to be constantly wearing her own pair of rose-colored glasses when she was with him. Christian Bale's portrayal was a little too robotic to be characterized as a human, driven by his superiors and an irrational obsession chasing Dillinger, but that may as well been how it was, but that I cannot comment confidently on that without more knowledge behind the man.
Finding yourself looking for a look into the hunting down, death, and destruction of one of the most infamous criminal gangs in American history, instead go save yourself the grueling 2-hour 23-minute cinematic vomit comet that Public Enemies is and rent "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford." However, if John Dillinger is your thing, its been done countless times, each once either strictly Dillinger, or some derivation of the criminal.
If you really want to see the film, go right ahead. It was decent, the starring performances were solid, just try and decipher who is who very earlier or your'll find yourself lost within the gunfights. Also, try and avoid watching it on a large screen else you'll arrive at the predicament of your face retching in a bucket or kneeling at the porcelain throne.