The movie begins with John Dillinger's (Johnny Depp) daring escape from prison and subsequent desire not to go back and live in the moment. He returns to Chicago where he has bought himself something of a safe haven. He and his crew terrorize local banks, taking them for all they can get, all while living it up with the nightlife. They were like rock stars, doing their thing with very little fear of retribution, although there is always a certain edge, a distinct danger that things could go wrong. But they scarcely paid it any mind, knowing their skills would take them as far as they wanted.
Things begin to pick up when Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) is put in charge of the Chicago field office by J. Edgar Hoover, who is attempting to get the FBI off the ground. It is thought that if public enemy number one, Dillinger, is brought to justice, it would go a long way towards getting the agency the backing it needs to be successful.
Purvis is straitlaced and serious, and always gets his man.He sets about putting his G-men to work in an effort to get Dillinger and all his accomplices. However, the story is not really about him, despite his importance to how it plays out. It puts a bit of a clamp on Bale's performance, which is more or less one note, yet still highly effective.
Public Enemies is based on history, but is not a slave to it. Watching this film will give you an honest overview of the era and how things played out; just do not trust it as a definitive source. There are factual errors that I will not go into here, as neither this review nor this film is about being a historical document. It certainly aims to be authentic to the period and motives of the characters, but that is about it.
This movie is a cross between a mainstream picture and an arthouse film. It has the big name stars, it has the big name performances, but it also refuses to follow mainstream movie conventions. Like I mentioned earlier, the story is told on its own terms. We get to see Dillinger in action, robbing banks, not letting weak members of the crew take him down, always getting what he wants, including the woman who catches his eye, Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard). Theirs is a non-traditional relationship: he wants someone she can protect; she is vulnerable and needs someone to protect her. They are never really a couple, so much as a complete set of needs. It is interesting to watch their interactions, and there is an interesting dynamic as he courts her all the way through what happens at the end (I cannot tell you).
Article comments