An epic story told in a slow pace.

Rating: 7/10 (11 July 2009)

Public Enemies tells the story of John Dillinger, the 1930's public enemy number one and how the Feds tried to take him down along with his friends. Or better yet, it just tells the story of how Dillinger was taken down. The story didn't start at the beginning nor did it tells us about John Dillinger, it just skipped to the middle of his 'career' and showed us how he escaped from prison and went on a bank-robbery-spree. So, in a way, the story was not in depth and, of course, it didn't really follow the real history with some changes made. But the storyline is gripping nonetheless.
The acting is brilliant. You can expect nothing less from the casts of Johnny Depp, who played public enemy number one convincingly; Christian Bale, who is obsessed to take Dillinger down; and of course the lovely Marion Cotillard, who played Dillinger's girlfriends. Cotillard however didn't get a very long screen time but she used every second of it to give us her best, and one of the best stand out scene is the interrogation scene.
The movie is shot with a shaky "hand-held" camera. It feels like we are chasing the action as it happens. And the tone of the movie is bright making it look like a documentary without the use of CGI or such. Everything about this movie looks realistic from the costumes to the buildings and cars in the background.
The soundtrack really fits the movie and I love the shooting scene, which most of the time is just silence with only gunshot ringing in the theatre hall. The gunshot sounds realistic and not surprising coming from Michael Mann, the director of Heat (1995).
All in all, Public Enemies is not for everyone and the 140 minutes long run does not help either. But if you want realistic drama and sweet shooting scene, plus great acting from a cast of brilliant actors and maybe a light history lesson, then this movie is for you.