Perfectly cast 'Public Enemies' hits its mark
Raging machine-gun battles - explosions of flame and thunder followed by the gentle tinkle of falling brass cartridges - provide the excitement in "Public Enemies," but the story belongs to the faces.
Marvelous, wonderful, perfectly cast faces.
From the pixie-like countenance of Baby Face Nelson to the rubbery expressions of Chicago beat cops, the faces of "Public Enemies," captured in ultratight, revealing close-ups, carry as much of the narrative as the dialogue.
Chicago-born filmmaker Michael Mann directs "Public Enemies" as an aesthetically accomplished and painstakingly accessorized gangster film based on the exploits of infamous bank robber John Dillinger, gunned down in 1934 by the Feds as he exited Chicago's Biograph Theater on Lincoln Avenue.
It's a great, iconic Chicago story, served up by a native Chicagoan with plenty of punch and panache, and a subdued performance by Johnny Depp, who plays Dillinger not as a murderous thug, but as a classic Hollywood gangster, layered with mystery and brimming with cool detachment.
From the opening scene where Dillinger instigates a daring breakout of a crony from Indiana State Penitentiary in 1933, "Public Enemies" launches into a Depression-era crime tale with wildly varying levels of dramatic impact and period atmosphere. (If this is the Great Depression, why does everyone dress so well? Why are all the banks gigantic architectural castles? Where are the unemployed poor people?)
Dillinger's legend as an American Robin Hood (here, based on Dillinger giving one man his money during a bank heist) is on the rise, but his criminal cohort Alvin Karpis (Giovanni Ribisi) makes a realistic prediction: "What we're doing won't last forever."
Dillinger takes such an instant, intense liking to a coat-check girl named Billie (Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard), that he professes undying loyalty ("I'll never leave you," he promises) and whisks her into a life of danger.
At the same time, "Public Enemies" tells the parallel story of how the FBI, under thorny bureaucrat J. Edgar Hoover (a tightly wound Billy Crudup), grew into its modern incarnation as a response to brazen gangsters such as Baby-Face Nelson (Stephen Graham) and Pretty Boy Floyd (Channing Tatum).
Hoover wastes no time in appointing the emotionally cocooned Melvin Purvis ("Dark Knight" star Christian Bale) as head of the FBI's Windy City office. His mission: to get Dillinger.
As the Chicago mob, headed by Frank Nitti (Bill Camp), distances itself from Dillinger to pursue lucrative criminal enterprises behind legal fronts, Purvis employs whatever means he can to track down the dapper Dillinger.
In the end, Depp's Dillinger crashes to the pavement on Lincoln Avenue in a curiously anti-climactic finale of bullets and blood.
And the marvelous, wonderful faces still tell the story,
"Public Enemies"
Rating: 3½ stars
Starring: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Giovanni Ribisi
Directed by: Michael Mann
Other: A Universal Pictures release. Rated R for language, violence. 140 minutes
<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=303603">Local extras get a bang out of film roles <span class="date">[06/30/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=301396">Depp, Bale hit Chicago for the premiere of 'Public Enemies' <span class="date">[06/18/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=303519">Dillinger grave sees more visitors amid movie hype <span class="date">[06/29/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=290863">Midwest hopes for 'Public Enemies' tourism <span class="date">[05/03/09]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>