Public Frenemies

I found this film fascinating and boring. Riveting and droll. So much of it was contradictory that I could never really get into it. It's a shame that my experience was immediately ruined by the HD look of the film, but it was. I'm used to my gangster movies glamorizing the titular character and portraying him exactly how the audience is supposed to feel about him. Of course, movies today are much more complicated than the rise and fall of Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar but the look of the film attempted to make it feel contemporary as if these people could be living among us. Michael Mann makes a bold choice here but not one I would make. If you are going to make a movie about the C.I.A. versus the gangsters of yesteryear, make it the ultimate gangster movie about these "enemies." Have the ultimate Heat-like cat and mouse game that you are so well known for. Instead, we get only one real showdown between Bale and Depp (though riveting it may be). The rest of the time we attempt to get insight into the minds of both Purvis and Dillinger as well as the relationship of Dillinger and Billie and come up empty handed.

The beginning especially bored me. After being thrown off by the image I found the first couple of bank robberies underwhelming. Perhaps the lack of suspense in these banks was meant to show how easy it was to be a bank robber back then. Either way, there was no thrill to watching these men rob these banks and then supposedly act like heroes for the rest of the country. Depp is customarily smug in his role and is never asked to stray too far away from what he knows. And I'm glad Bale didn't feel the need to overdo it in a movie that requires little of him as well. No matter what he does, I will always be a Christian Bale fan. Billy Crudup is hilarious as J. Edgar and provided some lift to the movie upon his appearance.

The movie finally shifts into gear towards the middle at which point I realize that I only care for the action sequences in the film. If this is the fault of it being a gangster movie or the fault of the film itself I don't know. The shootout in the forest was awesome as was the climactic moment when Dillinger gets shot. My main fault with the film is the relationship between Dillinger and Billie, which the movie kind of hinged upon. Depp and Cotillard (when I could understand her) had no chemistry and then their relationship is so thinly drawn that when dude goes to visit her in prison after Dillinger dies I contemplated walking out because I didn't care. Everything about this film pushes me away at an emotional level and then tries to pull me back in with the way it looks and is shot. Another contradiction.

Grade: C+

2009 Marlon Welles Awards Nominee:

Best "Best Moment of the Film": Dillinger takes a stroll through the office assigned to him