Despite fine acting and excellent design, Public Enemies is a mess of a film that left me bored and checking the time on my phone (and disturbing patrons behind me with the phone's blue light) throughout the film.
I like Michael Mann and found a way to accept him even as audiences dismissed 'Miami Vice' as dismal. Don't get me wrong. 95% of 'Miami Vice' is dismal and still the worse that Mann has committed to film (or digital tape). There is a short sequence however, set in a trailer park, that is not only an enthralling action piece with outstanding camera work but is also amongst the best of cinema that year. I had this sequence in my head throughout 'Public Enemies', waiting for a scene that could raise to such heights.
Unfortunately for 'Public Enemies', though not quite as appaling as the majority of 'Miami Vice', it has no redeeming sequence even with what should be a thoroughly more engaging storyline. It tells the true story of depression-era bank robber John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) and his pursuit by Melvin Puris (Christian Bale). While this isn't going on, Dillinger is pursuing a romantic relationship with Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard).
The narrative line of the pursuit for Dillinger and the narrative line of Dillinger's romance never sit comfortably next to each other. Lack of character development, owing to a poor by-the-numbers screenplay, leaves Dillinger too flat to make the love story feel believable.
Mann seems to be struggling with this by resorting to melodrama for much of these sequences and at times it began to feel like a TV-movie with A-list names. It can become distracting to feel like you are watching two movies instead of one cohesive whole.
Depp and Cotillard both deliver the fine performances you would expect, but neither are reaching their true potential witnessed elsewhere. Bale's performance is no more than gruffled and stirring, though this may owe to the fact that it feels like we are kept some distance from Puris, still Bale should pick his future roles carefully as he has quickly become a one-note pony in the last 12 months.
The design of the film, the costumes and the brand new vintage cars, is where 'Public Enemies' really shines. It embeds the film with a realism lacking elsewhere in the film's production, necessary as a reminder that we are watching a true story, often filmed where the real events took place.
It is a shame when the Mann who once gave us crime drama such as 'Heat' and more recently 'Collateral' should take such a stumble from a grace. Once so innovative in the genre, it is perhaps time for Michael Mann to take a break and re-evaluate what it was that drew him to such films in the first place.
