There are a number of things I greatly admire about Public Enemies. It’s a beautifully crafted period piece, Elliot Goldenthal’s score is terrific, and while the Luddite in me is reluctant to admit it - I actually liked the digital cinematography.
It wouldn’t have worked if every costume, every prop, every set and location wasn’t perfect, but it truly does feel like the filmmakers were walking around in the 1920’s with a high-def camera. This makes the era seem all the more immediate and tangible, whereas the gloss of film would have kept the audience at a certain distance. Compare any scene in Public Enemies to another film dealing with the same era and you’ll see what I mean. Should every film be shot in this style? Certainly not. But director Michael Mann is a skilled enough filmmaker to pull it off.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t change Johnny Depp’s persona from gentle, quirky and soft-spoken to an aggressive alpha-male living without any care for the future, which is what John Dillinger was. Depp gives it his all, compensating with his good looks and natural charm, but when Dillinger brutishly seduces Billie Frechette (Marion Cotilliard), it doesn’t ring true. Johnny Depp is many things, but intense is not one of them.
The character might have worked if Christian Bale, who plays F.B.I. agent Melvin Purvis, had played him instead. Bale can generate a certain amount of intensity, as anyone who has heard his rant on the set of Terminator: Salvation can attest. Curiously, his character in Public Enemies is almost a cipher - an empty figure onto which we can impose whatever virtues we want. Yet the resolution of his character opens up a thousand questions the film deliberately doesn’t answer. Guess I’ll have to read the book to find out.
Anemic characterizations notwithstanding, the film moves along at a good clip, features a show-stopping tommy gun battle at the end of the second act that rivals Mann’s bank heist in Heat, and there are moments of purely visual filmmaking that are simply terrific - in particular, Dillinger’s demise is beautifully directed. There’s a lot to recommend about Public Enemies to a true cinéaste… it’s technically superb, and Mann’s directoral approach is worthy of your attention. But for the general moviegoing public who want characters they can become invested in, it’s a marginal effort.