Ultimately Underwhelming

Rating: 7/10 (11 August 2009)

On one end of the spectrum, Public Enemies is embellished with great performances by its cast, especially Johnny Depp and Billy Crudup. It's also immensely mounted, with an extremely well designed 1930's era Chicago. The clothing, cars, weapons, and accents are all very accurate, as is to be expected with a big-budget period film. The narrative is also captivatingly woven, showing Dillinger's latter crime career, including his relationship with Billie Frechette, and eventual downfall including his eventual capture by the FBI.
So, while the film certainly had an adequate cast, budget, and script at hand, in the end a lot of it felt underdeveloped. Dillinger and Billie's relationship could have been fleshed out a bit more, and there should have been a few more scenes between Dillinger and Purvis. Both of these were needed in order to create more emotional depth for these characters, particularly to rationalize the actions of both Dillinger and Purvis, in order to make them viable for the audience to care about. As it stands, Public Enemies wasn't lacking in depth for Dillinger, as the majority of the film focuses on him, but Purvis was seriously under-written. His character was under-developed to such an extent that Bale's performance appeared to flounder in comparison to Depp, as Purvis wasn't lended a personality that made the audience empathize with his intentions. Puvis's lack of character development also left much suspense out the picture, an aspect that worked to nerve-wracking results in Mann's Heat, as both DeNiro and Pacino were very well-developed, and possessed far more dialogue exchange than the solitary scene Depp and Bale share in this film. Other faults that hurt the film was the uneven editing and the use of digital cameras instead of traditional 35mm film. The editing for Public Enemies disrupted the flow of the film, as certain scenes were either extended too long or cut so suddenly that pacing felt awkward at some points. Moreover, the use of digital film was not a good choice in shooting a period film. A few scenes, the shootouts especially, are 'cheap' looking, meaning that the realistic shooting style made much of this big-budget film look like it was shot for television or as a documentary, removing much of the scale it would have had on 35mm.
In the end, Public Enemies is a well-acted, stylishly mounted, enjoyable biopic that falters a little due to its underdeveloped characters, uneven editing, and awkward shooting style. But, in essence, its positives far outweigh its negatives, with some outstanding sequences, especially the climax, well-written dialogue, strong performances, and authentic art direction.