Public Enemies is more an historical drama than a crime thriller.
The film, set in the early 1930s, concerns notorious bank robber John Dillinger (Johnny Depp), one of a handful of particularly colourful criminals who became infamous during the Depression.
While regular people scraped to get by, Bonnie and Clyde, Ma Barker, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd and others ran riot across the American midwest.
Public Enemies begins shortly after the end of Dillinger's first prison term. He is back in Indiana, helping orchestrate a prison break for his mates, and in this first sequence director Michael Mann makes sure to remind you that Dillinger was a ruthless man. (Like several of his criminal peers, Dillinger became a hero to the people, a Robin Hood type whose exploits fascinated the general public.)
Next, we meet FBI agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale), a man as crucial to the right side of the law as Dillinger was to the wrong side.
Bale plays Purvis as a clenched fist, a man obsessed with capturing Dillinger, named Public Enemy No.1 by the FBI. He's busy dispatching Pretty Boy Floyd when he enters the narrative; Floyd is played by Channing Tatum, not that you see him at all.
Purvis reports to J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup), a man busy with the matter of creating a new federal bureau, his pet project. He too is obsessed with apprehending Dillinger, and he pushes Purvis hard toward that goal.
Public Enemies eventually becomes the story of Dillinger and Purvis and their entwined fates; if they're meant to be mirror-image type characters, there isn't enough of Purvis in the picture to make that happen.
The movie covers some of Dillinger's bank jobs, his love affair with Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard), his association with other criminals, such as Baby Face Nelson, and his amazing abilities at breaking out of jail.
Public Enemies also shows the crime changes in America that eventually left Dillinger alone and on the run, particularly the rise of organized crime.
Betrayal is key to the story, and betrayal on several levels, too, including FBI agent Purvis' betrayal of his own belief system as he uses any means to an end.
Reading between the lines, it's not tough to find contemporary political commentary, if you're so inclined.
Public Enemies has an extraordinary cast, with cameos from Diana Krall, Shawn Hatosy, Matt Craven, Leelee Sobieski and Lili Taylor, among many others.
The soundtrack and the cinematography are likewise impressive, but there's something about the pace of the tale that doesn't feel right.
Only in the last third of Public Enemies can you feel typical, Michael Mann-generated adrenalin, and for the first 90 minutes it was difficult to enter the world of the film completely.
You want to fall into it the way you fall into a great novel, but that didn't happen at once for this viewer.
On the other hand, a Michael Mann movie is a Michael Mann movie, and fans will not be disappointed.
Public Enemies is based on the non-fiction book by Bryan Burroughs called Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34.
A damn long title, we must say.
(This film is rated PG)
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