Another great movie from a year of great movies

Rating: 5/10 (9 February 2010)

2009 was a good year. At least, it was in the cinema. With the exception of a select few, such as the second Transformers, Surrogates, and G-Force, there weren't really any bad ones. And there were some greats: The Informant!, The Road, Up, The Hurt Locker, and of course Avatar. Another name to be added to this list is Public Enemies, from director Michael Mann. Of course, I wasn't surprised. Johnny Depp does tend to pick great movies, although I don't plan on seeing Alice in Wonderland later this year.
The part I enjoyed most was the way Michael Mann built up suspense, and there was plenty of that, when the ending was already a given. That's the problem with movies rooted in fact: the ending is a foregone conclusion. Some movies can overcome this, though, as Public Enemies did, and to an even greater extent, Titanic. (Although I'm a huge James Cameron fan, so maybe it's just me.)
The other great thing was the cinematography. During the daytime, it looked almost fake, a little too period to seem real. It looked just like a Hollywood set, even in the real historical sites. At night, however, everything changes. The film comes alive. The nighttime scenes are where the energy is. Michael Mann's no fool, He knows this and takes full advantage of it, pounding relentlessly through wet streets, or outside a certain Wisconsin hotel.
This is the greatest scene in the movie, no question. The build-up of that tension steadily rises, the threat growing larger and larger. It's obvious something is about to happen, it's just a question of when and how. This is one of the better formatted movie scenes of the year, and would get the entire movie at least five stars all by itself.
2009 may also be considered the year Stephen Lang became famous, and for good reason. He's a phenomenal actor. Hollywood has finally rewarded his performance by giving him major roles in The Men Who Stare at Goats and Avatar. His performance in Public Enemies, while not a major role, still commands attention. Stephen Lang has a very pronounced stage presence. He uses it to great effect.
Michael Mann is very fit for this genre. Public Enemies dispels any doubt of that. And while not the best movie in 2009, (that's a very hard title to claim) is still very respectable and worthy of a watch, if not several.