What A Mess!

Rating: 5/10 (20 August 2009)

Take two great actors(Bale and Depp), a great story(John Dillinger's life), a good director(Mann) and a Oscar-winning actress(Cotillard) and what do you get...A Complete Mess.
Public Enemies centers around the life story of John Dillinger; including his rise to prominence, his love affair with Frechette, his death and his pursuit by Melvin Purvis.
Very and I mean VERY little works in this movie.
Jonny Depp and Christian Bale give two of worst performances in their careers. Bale has been dull in other roles but this is ridiculous, and usually you can expect Depp to add something to a role and give it a life all it's own, there is none of that here. He sleepwalks through the film like he can't wait for it to be over, a sentiment I shared.
The love story between Depp and Cotillard is completely forced and there is hardly any explanation for why they love each other. They just meet go eat at a restaurant and then they're together.
All the bank robbery scenes were out of nowhere and just seemed to be in there because they felt like there had to be some in the movie. As if Michael Mann just said "alright throw in a bank robbery here."
Possibly worst of all to me was the portrayal of the police department. I'm always annoyed when Hollywood acts as if the police are the bad guys and criminals are just trying to make an honest living. The police came off as being incompetent and mean, while dillinger was this untouchable mega-criminal. In one scene Dillinger strolled right through the department that was looking for him in a room filled with his pictures and asked the cops, who were all inexplicably sitting by a radio listening to a game, what the score was. Seriously.
I found myself bored and confused through the majority of Public Enemies and I would by no means suggest going to see it. If you have to, at least wait till it's out on video so you won't waste quite so much money.