Nothing Much Apart from its Stars

Rating: 4/10 (25 July 2009)

I was disappointed with "Public Enemies." A lot of expectations were developed for this film because of the star combination that it features -- Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard. It also has an interesting central character, John Dillinger. I have read about the gangster Dillinger in various books in the past, but don't really know much about him, so I was curious to find out more about him.
Unfortunately, I did not really like this movie. The direction seemed to be rambling. The running time was too long. The scenes were confusing. I could not recognize the other characters during those many heists and gun fights. There was no excitement that develops despite the subject matter. I found several parts of the movie actually sleep-inducing. There was no build-up on the character of Dillinger at all, which I found the most disappointing. We meet him at the height of his career, but we do not know how he really got there.
Johnny Depp does not really disappear into his role as Dillinger. I can clearly recognize his acting tics, like how he wears his shades. I do not think Dillinger ever wore shades that way. Despite that, he is still the best part of this movie. He is charismatic and likable, like how Dillinger supposedly was. His scenes with Marion Cotillard (as his moll Billie Frechette) were the most involving parts of the whole film.
On the other hand, Christian Bale is simply turning out to be one boring actor for me. His scenes are very uninteresting. His acting is dull. His line delivery is quite monotone. The way he was eating his words was reminiscent of his Batman character, if you can imagine that. During his scene with Johnny Depp, Bale could not hold a candle to the incandescence of Depp's star appeal.
Overall, this was a waste of time for me. I expected too much, and got short-changed in a major way. Director Michael Mann was not able to deliver the best product out of the promising subject matter it had. I think another better film about John Dillinger can still be made in the future, as this one is not a definitive biography.