Public Enemies

Public Enemies is sort of an artsy movie. They did some interesting things with the cinematography, and it had some great lines in it. But I didn't feel all that connected to the characters or understand their motivations all that well. I needed more background information. The movie moved slow and it was hard for me to stay focused for the entire 140 minutes of the movie.

Plot: Basically the plot of the film is that the newly minted FBI is trying to combat a crime wave. They want to capture John Dillinger, the notorious bank robber. He is popular with the general public who hides him making him hard to capture. It is up to the golden boy of the FBI, Melvin Purvis, to bring Dillinger in. The plot of this movie left me a little lost because I don't know that much about Dillinger and they don't give you a heck of a lot of information about the whole situation. They also throw out a bunch of names of thugs and if you don't know who they are, then you are completely lost. There is not a lot of buildup or characterization; you are expected to sort of know who the characters are. If you do great, you'll love this film, if you don't maybe you should Google Dillinger before you watch it. You are sort of thrown into the middle of this war with little in the way of explanation. I also thought the little side plots featuring Pretty Boy Floyd and other criminals were a little distracting. They just sort of wander off into these side dramas with characters we haven't seen before, and if this movie was supposed to be about Dillinger, well they could have spent that time giving us a little more information about him. And there are a lot of FBI planning to do things scenes which don't give up a lot of info but bog down the movie. There is some action, of course in this film, gun fights, on-foot chases, car chases and even a bank robbery or two. But maybe not enough to keep you from getting distracted. Will Purvis catch Dillinger or any of the other notorious criminals he hunts in this movie? You will have to watch it to find out.

They did something very unique with the cinematography in this movie. They filmed it so it looked live instead of like a movie. They paid very close attention to detail, close up shots of the characters without make-up were used. You could see the texture of the clothes they were wearing. Parts of it were shaky like a moving camera. It was a very interesting and artful way to film this movie. One thing that bothered me in the cinematography though was the way they filmed some of the gun battles, a lot of scenes were dark or at night and the gun bursts were really bright and kind of hurt my eyes in the theater so if you have sensitive eyes you might want to be aware of it.

The acting was good. Johnny Depp as Dillinger was phenomenal as always. He played his part well, he has a great expressionable face that did excellent in the close ups. This movie was made for Johnny to act in it. You could believe he was the life loving bank robber. Now Christian Bale on the other hand, close ups aren't probably good for him. He is a solid actor but not the same caliber as Depp. I like him in certain roles and he was solid here, but not outstanding. I did like Marion Cotillard as Billie Frechette who was Dillinger's girlfriend. She has some good scenes in the movie that really added some of the missing depth to the film and she played them very well. And Billy Crudup did a decent job as young J. Edgar Hoover.

Overall, if you like gangster films about the 1930s and you already know about Dillinger, then this movie is for you. You'll love it. If you don't like gangster films and you don't know about Dillinger then you will be bored by this fictional documentary. For me, this is one Johnny Depp that I probably won't watch again.