REVIEWS -- PUBLIC ENEMIES -- by Chelsea
So I watched Public Enemies. This review will contain spoilers, so if you have not seen the movie and you don’t want spoilers, then get out. But if you could care less about spoilers… then happy reading!
The two best, most believable actors in the movie? Johnny Depp and Marion Cotillard, without a doubt.
Johnny Depp was simply amazing—like he usually is. Was it an Oscar-worthy performance? I think so—and I hope so. Like with most of his movies, I sometimes forget that it is only Johnny acting and I believe he really is that character up on screen. John Dillinger was no exception. He got Dillinger’s personality and charisma down so perfectly and he was so believable. And, of course, I could not stop staring at his eyes—they are always filled with so much emotion.
I thought that Marion Cotillard was the perfect fit for Billie Frechette. Like someone said in another review—her body was thin, delicate, and just perfect for that time period. She and Johnny had really great chemistry on screen, and I could easily feel that. In the scene where Dillinger and Billie were talking on the phone—when Dillinger says “I promised I’d look after you, didn’t I? Well, that’s what I’m gonna do.”—I wanted to just go “Aww” because of how dedicated and protective Dillinger was of Billie. I found it really charming, adorable, and so admirable. He knew the deathly risk of going back to Chicago, but he didn’t care because of his love for Billie.
And when Billie was taken away by the FBI… the devastated look on Johnny’s face nearly killed me. When he started to cry, that was when the tears started down my own face and they didn’t stop. Just… look at Johnny’s eyes in that scene, please. The emotion in them is just so much and it really tugs at your heart.
One whose performance I was not impressed with was Christian Bale. Now… I love Christian Bale. I love him a lot, but there was something totally lacking from his character—Melvin Purvis. To me, he just seemed so bland and possibly even fake. Maybe it was the accent? It just… wasn’t the best acting that I have seen of Christian Bale. I know he can do better—I’ve seen him do better—and I was kind of disappointed with his performance. His character was just so underdeveloped. In fact, most of the FBI in Public Enemies seemed dead boring except for Hoover. Billy Crudup was absolutely brilliant as Hoover.
Even most of the gangsters were so… I don’t know. They were just “there.” One of the biggest negatives about this film was that there were so many different characters it could be hard to keep up if you had little knowledge of the history. And a lot of their personalities were not properly developed and were just lacking and they had poor introductions.
Johnny Depp, for sure, overshadowed every single person in this film. He was absolutely perfect. But then again… the entire film was practically centered on John Dillinger, so of course there is a heck-of-a-lot more room for character development. We get plenty of scenes with Johnny, and most of the time the camera focused on his face—giving us several lovely up-close shots!
From what I got of Public Enemies… director Michael Mann really romanticized John Dillinger and the other gangsters. To me, they almost seemed like the good guys even when I had full knowledge that they robbed banks and killed people in the process! I was in fact cheering Dillinger on. I wanted him to win in the end and I wanted him and Billie to live “happily ever after,” even though I knew what his real fate would be and I had to accept that. (Erm. Of course that might be considered to be biased since I am such a huge Depp fan and I would rather see him live than die in any movie. Haha!)
And since John Dillinger seemed so heroic and good in this film, it was only natural to look at the FBI as if they were absolutely terrible. To be completely honest, they seemed so… cold and definitely ambitious. (Again, maybe I am biased?) And the scene where they are interrogating Billie… that was just... I don’t know. I hated that. I found it to be incredibly disrespectful and so cruel! A lot of times I wanted to just slap some of the FBI across the face because of how cruel they came off as in the movie. The only scene where Melvin Purvis earned respect from me is when he picked Billie up and carried her out of the interrogation room when she was unable to walk. I thought that was really kind and caring of him. He clearly didn’t approve of them torturing her like that and that finally led me to believe “Okay, so maybe Melvin Purvis isn’t that bad after all.”
And then of course there is John Dillinger’s death scene… Surprisingly, I did not cry during the actual death scene. Maybe because I was expecting it? I was glad that the scene was done very tastefully and dramatically and it was just well done. But seeing Johnny getting shot like that was upsetting, regardless! But when Billie was told that his last words were “Bye-bye, blackbird,” I totally lost it and practically broke down crying! That was really one of the biggest tear-jerking scenes I have seen in a long time.
Overall, Public Enemies was a pretty good movie. It wasn’t my favorite Johnny Depp film, but it was still good and it is worth watching simply for Johnny’s amazing performance as John Dillinger. But I do recommend that you read the book “Public Enemies” by Bryan Burrough or do some research online before watching it because of the many different characters, or else you may be left in a confused state.
