Public Enemies 05/30/2009
 
Michael Mann’s film Public Enemies stars Jonny Depp as a character many of us have not seen in awhile.  Depp’s performance was serious, thoughtful, convincing.  He was John Dillinger. 

And for almost two and a half hours Depp had me glued to my seat, awaiting his next move, even though my bladder was pleading for release.

Public Enemies posses’ a perfect symbiosis:  old gangster characters, historic gangster legend and modern day marvel.  Most films today considered a “period” piece go to great lengths and expense to make the color, the exposure as well as the costumes resemble the specific time and event.   But if Mann used any color correction or old film stock, it wasn’t apparent and the bold choice to take the camera off the tripod to get a slight shaky handheld shot was bold indeed, but worked, keeping with the film’s contemporary edge.

Public Enemiesis a good story and Mann had all the right elements:  strong characters, sharp dialogue, a love story and tragedy.  It’s not the Godfather, but it’s damn good.  

by kiley lane

 


Comments

Paula C. Clark

08/24/2009 12:01:36 pm

The style was impeccable, and while you were glued to your seat I had to be restrained into mine to sustain its glued-together plot! Depp was every inch the hardened gangster with nary a flicker of characterization, the part where he

And the bulk of unnecessary, unsharpened characters: what was the point of dragging in an antagonist police interrogator in the last 30 minutes when they could have used the valuable screen time to sharpen Bale's dead weight character? Michael Mann may not be as abhorrent, but I think he and that other Michael director (bay!) need to take a long stretch on the operating table and await getting implanted narrative devices: PLOT!

 

Paula C. Clark

08/24/2009 12:06:31 pm

I meant to say (before i trailed off into oblivion) that the part where he lures the wonderful Marion Cotillard away from the hat check counter was the only part where you get to see real characterization (in my book), maybe because Depp does mischief so well...anywho i felt it had so much potential, but nearly everyone I spoke with said that, by the end, they didn't much care whether Dillinger got shot or not. brava!

 



Leave a Reply

    Surreelfilm is a weekly feed for the freshest film chatter, news and reviews in Lexington Ky. 

    Catch the show live Monday mornings at 10am Eastern on WRFL 88.1 FM, and keep up with their latest news on     facebook. 

    Surreelfilm is not the Lexington Film League, and the Lexington Film League is not Surreelfilm – but we both think the other entity is pretty neat.