Chutzpah and Brains Gone Bad in a Pretty Good Version

Rating: 7/10 (26 July 2009)

Public Enemies (2009)
Chutzpah and Brains Gone Bad
Yes, this is a terrific gangster film, filled with period effects, great character acting, and visuals to knock the safety off your machine gun. But it's more than that, more than a love story snuck between the bank heists, more than a glimpse at the roots of the FBI (with a slightly unconvincing J. Edgar getting started). It manages to create a pulse and a mood that sustains even the occasional slow moments. It makes the life of Dillinger, in the form of Johnny Depp, a little fantastic and romantic in a filmic way--creating another Hollywood icon. The bio is the vehicle for a larger aura, which is the movie.
After all, we know the facts. It's how they are told and how they are seen that matters. Public Enemies, with all its clichés, is dynamic and sweet, disturbing and even a little bit funny. There are redundant moments (one too many bank robberies for me) and some acting that falls a little flat (including, unfortunately, Dillinger's love interest). But the cinematography by Dante Spinotti is really superb and varied, playing with foreground and background, often with a single element shown very close, and using a huge range of interesting light--the long chase scenes in the Wisconsin woods struck me as original and beautiful.
So I wouldn't think of this as a film about plot but about getting absorbed, which you can really do well. And about Depp in a superb performance, filled with charm and confidence and unrecognized doom.