Nearly flawless ‘Enemies' is thinking man's action flick

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Friday, July 3, 2009

Click here to enlarge this photo Peter Mountain/Universal Pictures John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) stares down his next target in Michael Mann's "Public Enemies" E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Michael Mann does not seem to care about following rules: The director doesn't present "Public Enemies" with traditional period piece aesthetics.

There are no sweeping views of the countryside or phony accents. Slow motion death scenes are rare, and even the orchestrated score is used sparingly.

Instead, he tells the story of bank robber John Dillinger with digital cameras, conversational dialogue and a smooth pace that defies the episodic trap into which so many historical dramas fall.

The script is familiar territory for Mann. As in "Heat" and "Collateral," the audience faces the challenge of empathizing with a character that shoots people and gets away with it. Johnny Depp, armed with a convincing Indiana drawl, pulls off the trick. But restraint is partly responsible.

Although Dillinger was a Depression-era folk hero known for letting customers keep their money during heists, the character never leaps into mythical territory. As he orchestrates a mass escape from a state prison and sets out on a spree, with buddies including Homer Van Meter (Stephen Dorff, "World Trade Center") and Pete Pierpont (David Wenham, "300"), Dillinger is cool and calculating. Even when he escapes police custody a second time, Depp plays a savvy career criminal rather than an invincible king of the road.

The action is the movie's greatest strength. Nobody does gunplay better than Mann. With handheld cameras and firing range clarity, shootouts become almost interactive. Characters die matter-of-factly without jerking or moaning. It is apparent that another hotel showdown is around the corner, but every scene is tense.

And the violence is never gratuitous. The feds and the fugitives are two armies more reliant on strategy than force. But by the time Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham "Goal!") joins up with Dillinger, the shooting grows reckless. The increased firepower then becomes a reflection of the gang's descent.

The romance punches all the right buttons, too. In her first English-speaking role since winning a Best Actress Oscar for "La Vie en Rose," Parisian beauty Marion Cotillard plays Dillinger's love interest with a mixture of fierceness and fragility. The relationship gets enough screen time to justify Dillinger's dedication, but it never plummets into schmaltz.

Although Depp's performance is excellent, he doesn't have the meatiest role. Billy Crudup ("Watchmen"), as dandy FBI dark lord J. Edgar Hoover, almost steals the show.

The film presents Hoover as a master of public relations, not a crime fighter, and Crudup nails the part. The only G-man with heart, Charles Winstead (Stephen Lang, "Gods and Generals") brings an old school Southern dignity to the horde of media-hungry suits.

The movie drags a bit, but that's not worthy of complaint. What holds it back from greatness, on the other hand, is a couple of problems with the cast. First, it's too big. The Dillinger Gang rolled several members thick, but Mann (with co-writer Ronan Bennett) makes the mistake of trying to give too many of them an identity. Van Meter, the guy who can't walk away, and Nelson, the bullet-spraying wild card, are worth fleshing out. Everyone else should just be along for the ride.

Christian Bale, an actor not known for his chops, gives a distractingly poor performance. His turn as manhunter Melvin Purvis is wooden and his South Carolina "accent" won't fool anyone. Someone with more range, like Josh Brolin, would have been a better choice.

But those are minor hiccups. At well over two hours long, the film rarely gets dull.

In a summer full of sequels and special effects, it's a hearty chunk of brain food—smart, gritty and more fun than you'd think. Dillinger purists must forget about the glaring inaccuracies.

"Public Enemies" is a movie, and it's likely to be one of the best out before Thanksgiving.

Public Enemies

Action/Crime Drama. Length: 143 minutes

Rated: R. Director: Michael Mann. Cast: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup, Stephen Dorff, Steven Lang, Stephen Graham