Very good, if leisurely

Rating: 8/10 (1 July 2009)

Public Enemies tells the story of the pursuit of John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) by Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale).
The narrative is straightforward, the dialogue and setting all ring authentically of the era in which the events took place, and the cast are all first rate.
I have several relatively minor reservations.
One: the movie takes things at a very relaxed pace, and my attention wandered slightly in the final third. I felt it could have been tightened up usefully by about half an hour.
Two: sound balance was very poor in the first 10 minutes. Music and effects were fine, but dialogue was muffled.
Three: you end up liking the murderous thief Dillinger, and not caring for law enforcer Purvis. Quite possibly this reflects the characters of the two men, but it doesn't seem quite right to finish the film thinking "That John Dillinger - what a nice man! What a pity he got killed."
Four: hand held camera! There's a dialogue scene between Dillinger and his girlfriend at the racetrack, shot from about four different camera angles and, because they are all hand held when they could have been shot from tripods, the constant wobble is very distracting. It doesn't all have to be hand-held, really it doesn't!
But a decent job from Michael Mann. Not a classic, but a good movie nevertheless.