I'm mixed

Rating: 6/10 (26 July 2009)

Johnny Depp plays Dillinger in Michael Mann's take on the gangster legend.
Well acted and extremely well made with some stunning set pieces this is in a good many ways one of the best films of the year...
...but...
...damn its slow. Yes I made it all the way to the end but at the same time I had no idea where it was going. Yes I know it was going to the Biograph Theater, but at the same time I wasn't quite sure why. I think the problem is that the film, even at 140 minutes is not long enough. There are whole volumes that seem to be missing from the tale. Characters come and go and bend into one another. Melvin Purvis is a cypher. Outside of Depp's Dillinger and Marion Cotillard's Billie I knew nothing about the characters. The casting of recognizable actors like Stephen Lang or James Russo seem to import a bigger weight then they receive, though Russo's presence is strong enough to hang over the entire film. I really don't know what to make of it.
Yes you will want to see this if you have a good home theater system since the shoot outs will rattle your windows, outside of that I really don't know what to say other than if you're interested give it a try. Its one one the few times I'm hoping for a directors cut of some kind.
between 6 and 7 out of 10 with parts much higher.