Dragging and limp, a massive disappointment from Michael Mann

Rating: 3/10 (28 April 2010)

A hugely disappointing experience - I am a big Michael Mann fan: the coffee shop scene in 'Heat' is one of the most bristling moments of recent cinema history. Perhaps that's part of the problem. 'Heat' works because the entire film is drawing to a meeting of the colossal forces that are Lt. Vincent Hanna and Neil McCauley (played, of course, by Al Pacino and Robert de Niro). In the coffee shop scene the audience realises that what they are seeing are two sides of the same coin - they are the same people, and their confrontation can only end in self-destruction.
In 'Public Enemies' there simply isn't that kind of collision between the characters of Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. There's a brief, witty yet flippant meeting of the two between the bars of a jail in the first half of the film, which entirely dissolves the tension between these supposedly titanic enemies. A real flop after the fizz of Mann's previous work. In the end, I found that I just didn't care enough about the characters to stay interested.
The HD handy-cam style works perfectly in the slow dialogue of scenes like the race course scene, picking out every stitch in Depp's expertly tailored suits. Or in the half-light of a photographer's flare as the plane brings its prisoner onto a journalist-packed airstrip. But as soon as it tries to capture a fast-moving firefight in a cottage in the woods, the style collapses. Mann simply hasn't hit the mark with his cinematography. I have no problem with the style in general; it just doesn't work here.
Finally, Mann's enduring weakness with his female characters really stands out in 'Public Enemies'. When you have a screen presence such as Marion Cotillard at the beginning of the film and then take her away half way through the film, you really notice. Worse of all, to then bring her back only to beat her unnecessarily around the head for 15 minutes in a scene dangerously close to misogyny just grates. Give me more of her, and less of unwatchable shootouts in darkness please! I'm sorry, but it's an overly-long, overly-busy movie that could do with a few more days in the editing suite. 140 minutes - a real let-down for a otherwise praising Michael Mann fan.