Enemies of the state

Public Enemies robs viewers of a developed biopic, but Depp saves the film with an arresting performance

By Selena Fragassi
Published: July 1st, 2009 | 11:40am

By the time the law catches up with John Dillinger in the summer’s much-anticipated Public Enemies, he is alone — bereft of his ill-fated love Billie Frechette (played by the convincingly vulnerable Marion Cotillard) and betrayed by his friend, the Lady in Red brothel owner Anna Sage, whose fear of being deported to her native Romania leads her to a final Judas moment which culminates at the notorious Biograph Theatre.

It’s a whirlwind turn of events for the character of “Public Enemy Number One,” who, throughout the film, uses a sharp tongue and a daring attitude to conquer impossible challenges and conservative ladies — at once having the gall to waltz through the office of the John Dillinger crime division just to see if he could get caught, at another bedding a coat check girl even after unapologetically declaring in the first minutes of small talk, “I’m John Dillinger. I rob banks.”

The unraveling only works because one man (and not Michael Mann, whose direction of the film is to be questioned) dared to meet the challenge of playing such a twisted character — the seriously underrated Johnny Depp. In a film that jarringly jumps across state lines and time gaps to follow the “don’t think a day past tomorrow” Dillinger, Depp pauses to provide moments of sheer clarity and brilliance in a rare portrayal of villainous that turns his acclaimed role as Sweeney Todd into a mere cartoon.

Mann, for his part, leaves much left to the imagination in a film that chooses blockbuster over biopic, at near moments crashing from the ongoing high-speed chase instead of slowing down and taking a turn into the world of the characters. In one frame, Dillinger quickly alludes to being beaten as a child before it’s just as quickly forgotten; in another, Frechette teases us with the story of a less than fairytale childhood on an Indian reservation before closing her lips to conclude the couple’s first love scene. Regardless of the historical significance of the characters, Mann does a disservice ignoring the viewer’s curiosity of character arcs in favor of elongated shoot-outs and foot races.

Shot mostly in Chicago, Public Enemies could at least be a biopic of the dichotomy of the city in the gangland era — from gritty alleyways to grand courthouses and opulent banks that make today’s modern amenities pale in comparison. The movie also delves into the progression of the FBI system, initiated by J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup) as a response to Dillinger’s “mockery of the system of justice,” becoming more of a revered Robin Hood celebrity than a hated criminal.

This development brings in the film’s protagonist, Agent Melvin Purvis (played by a stoic Christian Bale) who is left in charge of the Chicago field office and is at first, admittedly unqualified to get the job done. But he soon feeds off the dwindling strength of Dillinger, becoming the man to fire the literal smoke signal with the light of his cigar, warning of Dillinger’s fated departure from the theater. In the slow motion scene that is hauntingly silent as Dillinger falls to the ground and takes his last breath, the viewer is left confused by his lasting legacy, recalling a line that appeared earlier as Dillinger confronts a victim, “You can be a dead hero or an alive coward.”