Opportunity thrown into the wind

Rating: 5/10 (5 September 2010)

The right director, the right cast, the perfect sets, and a great story to be told for the upcoming generations. Everything seemed great and this film surely looked a promising potential Oscar nominee but something was missing: A good screenplay. As Hitchcock said one time "The script, the script and the script". That's what makes a good movie; that's what makes the difference between a memorable movie and a trashy movie. But "Public Enemies" is not trashy neither is memorable, it is just weak. Weak in almost everything and that lies on the hands of the people who wrote it without thinking on the public.
The movie focuses on John Dillinger's greatest moments while robbing banks, escaping of jails and the police, and also his romantic life. This is the villain (here played by Johnny Depp). Tracking this bad guy and many others is FBI agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) and his team of young agents. This is the good guy. I just presented these opposite forces of the story because the rest is equal as any other films of the genre even reminding us of another work of director Michael Mann "Heat" where you have these two guys on the different side of the law fighting each other with all their forces (brilliant film). "Public Enemies" could have been just like "Heat", it could have been like "The Untouchables". It could have been a memorable film in terms of everything. You may wonder why all this dislike?
1) Weak screenplay, it needed a better development of action scenes, lack of criticism on the main character and a plausible explanation of what they're doing and why they're doing it; a point of view worth seeing was missing here. The whole aspect Mann wanted as letting the main characters been played realistic was totally wrong because in the end of all you can't care enough for these two guys, they're dead on scene, very stone cold figures with no trace of likable things. People needed someone to cheer up throughout the film. 2) a anti-climatic ending; 3) Unrealistic things (such as the guy shot on the head being able to talk who shot him (very laughable scene); 4) it moves in so many different genres, very indefinable; 5) Considering the ensemble casting of this film no actor was outstanding here (except Stephen Lang who was very good); 6) Many of the technical aspects dragged the viewer out of the movie such as HD camera work (for a story set in the 1930's it was a awful aspect); the musical score composed by Elliot Goldenthal was wrongfully played at times and even worst than that he copied himself using a excerpt of his score from "Michael Collins" (those who have a great ear for music and a good film memory knows that Mann rejected a piece of music of Goldenthal in "Heat" that was later used at the end of Neil Jordan's film); and some viewers noticed a familiarity with the score of "The Thin Red Line" so can we say plagiarism? 7) The movie runs for too long, it bores a lot.
But it is good for a few things. The art direction and the costumes was interesting to see, very well made; the editing is not that bad as people say it is, it has some shaky camera but it's not so bad. And again Stephen Lang's performance stealing the show of Bale playing a FBI agent. As for Depp, Bale, Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup, Channing Tatum, David Wenham, James Russo and company it was just another film added in their filmographies. Nothing more!
Good premise for a film but I didn't involved me. Writers thrown a great opportunity to the wind. Good old times when James Cagney was the real thing playing a truly "Public Enemy". 5/10