There, but not quite at The Top.

Rating: 4/10 (6 July 2009)

Here we have the criminal class and their underworld exploits that has been cast into the public arena since the heady days of Al Capone's St. Valentine's Day massacre. Media lead and sectionalised for maximum effect, these modern-day outlaw cowboys' were the new antihero's that the victims of the great American depression, Americas bleakest time and her at her most naked and vulnerable, needed and craved.
It was Warner Bros. and one Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar (1931) that opened the floodgate to a new genre of film: the gangster movie. Built over the years in categories' such as "classic" (The Public Enemy), "social background" (Angels With Dirty Faces), "film noir" (The Maltase Falcon), and the "historical reconstruction" etc, etc. It is now well and truly above reproach to say that it has earned its right into the film history vaults.
Public Enemies has the historical reconstruction label put upon it, and this latest outing has John Dillinger facing the music. Played by Johnny Depp with cool persona, who does quite a good job in leaving the viewer feeling a little too distant and unattached. Unlike his counterparts, Cagney and Robinson, for example, from the classic period, who oozed psychotic menace, has this modern day Dillinger looking more sedate and, at times, a sympathetic character. This is a man who, by reputation and vocation, was a bank robbing killer, here, Michael Mann has concentrated on the love angle between Dillinger and Billie Frechette, played by French beau ideal Marion Cotillard (La vie en rose - 2007).
John Dillinger was an evil man, but this feels that the epicentre of his crime wave has been by-passed by a love angle. Yes, we know that every good gangster needs a gangster's moll: Clyde's Bonnie, Tony Montana's Elvira Hancock and Tom Powers' Gwen Allen to name a few, while the work was being done these leading ladies were sidelined, this, Mr. Mann's Public Enemies feels more Kit and Holly's Badlands of 1973.
The sets are fine and the outfits, well, Oscar buzz anyone? The category "Costume Design" would be missing a very sharp cut if this film's Colleen Atwood were not nominated; on the other hand, it is the actual feel of lack of depth and lack of connection from the major players here, insofar the lack of detail that is given, only a smattering of information of peoples' past is ever present. This, and at other points in the movie really does feel like a pure reconstruction, akin to Televisions crime programmes, than a piece of work based on the life of John Dillinger and his nemeses Melvin Purvis. This is where this work falls flat, yes, there is atmosphere, tension and interest but the "historical reconstruction" label feels like it is skimming the pages of a book rather than sitting down and reading the whole thing proper.
It really is a crime, and to be blunt, if there were ever a film that came across as deep in narrative, tense in action, sincere at heart then, for I, it has to be Terrence Malick's Badlands. Any gangster movie, too, that contains James Cagney: The Public Enemy (1931), The Roaring Twenties (1939) and White Heat (1949) and of course Howard Hawks' masterpiece Scarface (1932). Mr. Dillinger here certainly is on top of his world but he will never reach Top of the World!