Friday, Jul. 03, 2009

The Big Screen: 'Public Enemies'

Michael Mann's "Public Enemies" tries hard to be many things. A passionate and sweeping romance, a noir-ish crime thriller, a thug-filled drama and a charismatic portrayal of a classic American anti-hero. But the story's writing never quite catches up with Mann's great ambition and this year's first big summer blockbuster is more or less a dud firework. What could have been a gritty blood and guts kind of story is a rather lifeless movie about a guy who likes to rob banks.

There aren't a whole lot of movies like "Public Enemies" out right now. The sweeping character-filled epic is in a league of its own now and will pull audiences in simply because there is nothing else around. So don't be fooled by the hype, because despite the indelible talents of the film's big names, the movie is a big disappointment.

The film is a jigsaw puzzle of too much and too little. Mann sets the tone of the film with a number of bank robberies and shootouts, escapes and many moments in which Dillinger is right under the nose of the feds. Christian Bale plays the obsessed federal agent Melvin Purvis whose life's purpose is the capture of John Dillinger. Purvis' obsession is upstaged by J. Edgar Hoover's fanaticism. In one scene Hoover (played with great seriousness by Billy Crudup) admits that the new FBI should aspire to be like Mussolini's Fascist Party.

Mann doesn't carry this theme any further than a single line of dialogue. In the end credits it is revealed that Purvis took his own life in 1960, yet the obsessive nature that drove his life is hardly developed.

The romance between Dillinger and his main lady Billie Frennette (played by Marion Cotillard) is another turn in the wrong direction. Cotillard is relegated to a second-rate character; she is nothing more than a pretty love interest in an over romanticized relationship. And the intensity of their relationship detracts from the development of the entire story. Rather than developing Dillinger into a likeable anti-hero or the villainous lead we only see him as a sappy and lovelorn leading man. The opposite of what anyone might expect from Dillinger.

In Mann's attempt to make a bankable movie for the summer season his attempts at experimentation and originality are lost in a story that never pulls itself together.