Film Review: Public Enemies (15)***
Evoking feeling of thirties misery Michael Mann's latest bullet-riddled epic presupposes that world audiences will be familiar with the deeds of John Dillinger who, during a brief period over 1933/34, robbed a string of banks across small-town America.
In that time Dillinger became a 20th century folk hero as well as the focus of the fledgling FBI's energy. Determined to get his man, J Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup) appointed assiduous agent Melvin Purvis to track down and assassinate Dillinger.
Mann makes the point early on that Dillinger's case was not one of "wanted dead or alive". The authorities wanted him dead. For the public it was an entirely different matter. John was a blue-collar guy sticking it to the fat cats.
Johnny Depp plays Dillinger without much effort to look like the real McCoy. He looks like Depp even if he affects a deeper, more serious tone than normal. But he lacks edgy toughness, underlining his portrayal with rather too much charm and courtesy.
Public Enemies emerges as a series of interlocking vignettes populated by a variety of character actors in extended cameos. Thus Giovanni Ribisi flits in and out of the plot as Alvin "Creepy" Karpis, Stephen Graham screams his defiance at the trigger of a sub-machine gun as "Baby Face" Nelson and Stephen Dorff is gangster Homer Van Meter.
The film is a three-hander between Depp, Christian Bale (as Purvis) and Marion Cotillard as Dillinger's moll. Depp dominates and handles dialogue and weaponry with skill. He meets Bale only once, in a moment reminiscent of the coffee table stand-off between De Niro and Pacino in Heat, another Mann offering. QThe film boasts a strong evocation of Thirties misery. It looks and feels like Dillinger's time and place.
One aspect upsets the balance. On the day of his death, Dillinger strides into the offices of the Chicago Police Department and wanders through the rooms where Purvis has built his command centre. It's nonsense, of course – and undermines much of what has gone before.
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