This from Variety.com:

Posted: Tue., May 5, 2009, 11:08am PT

L.A. fest spotlights 'Public Enemies'
Johnny Depp pic to screen at festival

By DAVE MCNARY

Michael Mann's "Public Enemies," starring Johnny Depp, will screen June 23 as the Centerpiece premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

Film Independent made the announcement Tuesday as part of disclosing the lineup selection of more than 70 features, 70 shorts and 50 musicvideos for the June 18-28 event. Dates for the other screenings, along with panels, workshops and artists in residence, will be announced in coming weeks.

Universal opens "Public Enemies," also starring Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard, on July 1.

Fest director Rebecca Yeldham told Daily Variety that the event should outdraw last year's 85,000 attendees despite the recession.

"It would be inappropriate to have big flashy parties, but we'll have plenty of substance and quality," she said. "It's a celebration of film, irrespective of origin."

The org said that four of seven pics in the narrative competition will be world premieres: Suzi Yoonessi's "Dear Lemon Lima," Jason Bushman's "Hollywood, je t'aime," Matt Bissonnette's "Passenger Side" and Sam Fleischner and Ben Chace's "Wa Do Dem (What They Do)." Alicia Scherson's "Turistas" and Tariq Tapa's "Zero Bridge" will make their U.S. preems at the fest. Bob Byington's "Harmony and Me" was also selected for the competition.

Film Independent also named 11 titles for its Summer Showcase, which offers an advanced look at the summer's "most talked about" indie film releases from the fest circuit: Claire Denis' "35 Shots of Rum," John Maringouin's "Big River Man," Sophie Barthes' "Cold Souls," Pete McCormack's "Facing Ali," Lynn Shelton's "Humpday," Armando Iannucci's "In the Loop," Davis Guggenheim's "It Might Get Loud," Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein's "No Impact Man," Nicholas Jasenovec's "Paper Heart," Hirokazu Kore-eda's "Still Walking" and Ondi Timoner's "We Live in Public."

The fest will feature four world premieres in its documentary competition: Hilla Medalia's "After the Storm," Fredrik Gertten's "Bananas!," Brent Meeske's "Branson" and Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher's "October Country." Film Independent tapped veteran producer and exec Yeldham as its director earlier this year to succeed Richard Raddon.

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Crudup looks good in this. Can't say any of the other cast members piqued my interest, but pre-release screenings have generated good buzz for Depp and Cotillard.

Reviews to come soon...

Lou Lumenick NY Post Unofficial review

Oscar Watch: Sorry, 'Public Enemies' is Shooting Blanks (No Spoilers)
Disappointingly, I think Michael Mann's much-anticipated "Public Enemies'' -- which screened last night in Manhattan in advance of Chicago premiere tonight and its July 1 opening (when I will have an actual review) -- is probably going to have a hard time getting any Oscar nominations outside maybe the technical categories. For all its considerable visual flair and painstaking recreation of the early '30s Midwest, for me this was overall a curiously uninvolving gangster movie. Between an underwritten script and essentially flat performances, we never really get to know the characters, or care much about them. John Dillinger is played by one of my favorite actors, two-time Oscar nominee Johnny Depp who is hugely charismatic in fantasy roles but seems smaller than life playing a real person (and why is he wearing that distacting black eyeliner anyway?) Not much more interesting are Dillinger's FBI pursuer Melvin Purvis (a bland Christian Bale in Dick Tracy mode) and Dillinger's weepy, half-French, half-Native American moll. The latter is played by Oscar winner Marion Cotillard ("La Vie En Rose''), who has zero chemistry with Depp, including in their decorous sex scene. Even Dillinger's famous slaying outside Chicago's Biograph Theater (after watching "Manhattan Melodrama,'' which Mann's film samples, begging unfavorable comparison) seems a bit anticlimactic. On the plus side are some of the best choreographed machine-gun battles ever and some eye-popping art direction. But the overall effect is far less entertaining than Brian DePalma's "The Untouchables,'' which is probably the most appropriate comparison in the genre.



Mann being the most overrated auteur currently working in Hollywood, there will be reflexive raves (even the appalling "Miami Vice'' film got them) from some critics and fanboys like this one but I can't see this movie connecting with the public in a large enough way to cover the hefty budget. This is not good news for Universal, which is on a losing streak that includes "Land of the Lost,'' "State of Play'' and "Duplicity,'' all big-budget flicks with big stars. U lost a bundle on two earlier star vehicle from auteurs set in the same era as "Public Enemies,'' Ron Howard's "Cinderella Man'' and Clint Eastwood's "Changeling'' with Angelina Jolie. The fact is that outside flat-out fantasies like the "Pirates of the Carribean'' series with Depp and U's "King Kong'' remake, audiences haven't shown much interest in major period movies since Universal's "Seabiscuit'' (2003). Even U's "American Gangster'' (2007), set in the '70s, was something of a box-office disappointment as the great mass of moviegoers seem to have difficulty relating to anything that happened anything earlier than the 1980s. Yet Universal is plowing ahead with its untitled Ridley Scott Robin Hood movie starring Russell Crowe.

Buzz up!Posted by Lou Lumenick on June 18, 2009 12:00 PM

Lucky I am seeing it for free next Thursday.

quote:

Originally posted by BTN:
Lou Lumenick NY Post Unofficial review

Oscar Watch: Sorry, 'Public Enemies' is Shooting Blanks (No Spoilers)
Disappointingly, I think Michael Mann's much-anticipated "Public Enemies'' -- which screened last night in Manhattan in advance of Chicago premiere tonight and its July 1 opening (when I will have an actual review) -- is probably going to have a hard time getting any Oscar nominations outside maybe the technical categories. For all its considerable visual flair and painstaking recreation of the early '30s Midwest, for me this was overall a curiously uninvolving gangster movie. Between an underwritten script and essentially flat performances, we never really get to know the characters, or care much about them. John Dillinger is played by one of my favorite actors, two-time Oscar nominee Johnny Depp who is hugely charismatic in fantasy roles but seems smaller than life playing a real person (and why is he wearing that distacting black eyeliner anyway?) Not much more interesting are Dillinger's FBI pursuer Melvin Purvis (a bland Christian Bale in Dick Tracy mode) and Dillinger's weepy, half-French, half-Native American moll. The latter is played by Oscar winner Marion Cotillard ("La Vie En Rose''), who has zero chemistry with Depp, including in their decorous sex scene. Even Dillinger's famous slaying outside Chicago's Biograph Theater (after watching "Manhattan Melodrama,'' which Mann's film samples, begging unfavorable comparison) seems a bit anticlimactic. On the plus side are some of the best choreographed machine-gun battles ever and some eye-popping art direction. But the overall effect is far less entertaining than Brian DePalma's "The Untouchables,'' which is probably the most appropriate comparison in the genre.



Mann being the most overrated auteur currently working in Hollywood, there will be reflexive raves (even the appalling "Miami Vice'' film got them) from some critics and fanboys like this one but I can't see this movie connecting with the public in a large enough way to cover the hefty budget. This is not good news for Universal, which is on a losing streak that includes "Land of the Lost,'' "State of Play'' and "Duplicity,'' all big-budget flicks with big stars. U lost a bundle on two earlier star vehicle from auteurs set in the same era as "Public Enemies,'' Ron Howard's "Cinderella Man'' and Clint Eastwood's "Changeling'' with Angelina Jolie. The fact is that outside flat-out fantasies like the "Pirates of the Carribean'' series with Depp and U's "King Kong'' remake, audiences haven't shown much interest in major period movies since Universal's "Seabiscuit'' (2003). Even U's "American Gangster'' (2007), set in the '70s, was something of a box-office disappointment as the great mass of moviegoers seem to have difficulty relating to anything that happened anything earlier than the 1980s. Yet Universal is plowing ahead with its untitled Ridley Scott Robin Hood movie starring Russell Crowe.

Buzz up!Posted by Lou Lumenick on June 18, 2009 12:00 PM

This review has some interesting, telling points. The author goes out of their way to criticize Michael Mann- letting the reader know that the review is biased from the get-go, and they spend an entire paragraph criticizing Universal, or as they put it in their Myspace type, "U".

I haven't seen the film, and I hope not to be disappointed, but at least I am going to see it with an open mind.

Lou Lumanick much of the time is a shill for his paper's owner. Rupert Murdoch, and its interests (meaning Fox). Maybe he has been told to trash Universal as much as possible (which owns NBC - a rival network, as well as a rival studio.

He runs the risk of being cut out of early screenings - there likely was an embargo on any review (a common agreement - you see the film early, but publish your review at the regular time), and I wouldn't be surprised if Universal thinks twice about going to an early screening again. The same might apply to other studios.

In any event, it is bad form on his part.

quote:

Originally posted by seanflynn:
Lou Lumanick much of the time is a shill for his paper's owner. Rupert Murdoch, and its interests (meaning Fox). Maybe he has been told to trash Universal as much as possible (which owns NBC - a rival network, as well as a rival studio.

He runs the risk of being cut out of early screenings - there likely was an embargo on any review (a common agreement - you see the film early, but publish your review at the regular time), and I wouldn't be surprised if Universal thinks twice about going to an early screening again. The same might apply to other studios.

In any event, it is bad form on his part.

Good to know- it's interesting- you didn't even have to know his background to read that and realize he had an axe to grind with Universal.

Whatever Lou says isnt going to impact any of my viewing decisions. However, I tend to agree with his rather negative view of Michael Mann. Michael Mann's films are a cause for concern, imo.

The "U" bashing seems suspicious indeed but when has Mann's characters ever displayed any chemistry more like bicker argue and fight and forget about any sexy sex scenes so I am not surprised other than Lumenick's contention that Marion Cotillard's performance is "weepy" and not "interesting."

I didn't realise Lumenick had an axe to grind against Universal, but when he stretches the truth to describe American Gangster as "something of a box office disappoinment" to fit his "the public don't like period flicks" theory, then something smells off.

American Gangster was just about the only adult drama of late 2007 that could be regarded as an unqualified box office success. Ever other adult drama that season crashed and burned at the box office that season (ie Lions For Lambs, Rendition, In The Valley Of Elah). With around the same budget as The Departed, AG made 130 million domestic (only 2 million less than The Departed, which I can't recall being described as a "box office disappointment)

In total, worldwide, American Gangster made about 270 million dollars. The Departed made about 290 million dollars. American Gangster came within about 20 million of The Departed's Worldwide total, without winning any major awards or the Best Picture Oscar.

In short, Lumenick is full of revisionist crap. AG was a period drama that made sh/tloads of money.

An interesting piece from InContention.com:

Michael Mann goes deep on ‘Public Enemies’
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:38 am · June 16th, 2009

There’s a reason Michael Mann is my favorite working director. Consistently saddled with accusations of unyielding perfectionism and idiosyncrasy, he is a filmmaker who sets out to make exactly the film he wants to make every time, and he has the goods to back up the artistic aggression. The last two times out of the gate (2004’s “Collateral” and 2006’s “Miami Vice”) didn’t exactly capitalize on his considerable talents, but when “Public Enemies,” which I saw last night, plays the Los Angeles Film Festival next week and eventually opens nationwide July 1, I think audiences and critics alike will see it as a return to muscular, yet patient storytelling form.

Patrick Goldstein, writing at The Big Picture blog in the Los Angeles Times, has crafted a wonderfully fair and engaging interview piece with the director (which is also a coup for Universal publicity). He doesn’t skirt the issue when it comes to Mann’s industry infamy, dedicating a considerable chunk to the director’s professional head-butting with Sony honcho Amy Pascal concerning the particular’s of 2001’s “Ali.” But the work stands head and shoulders above the off-the-screen conflicts every time. Says Pascal in the piece, “You forget about the pain of childbirth too. I mean, whatever you go through, you still want another baby. It’s like that with Michael too.”

I also have to give it up to Mann’s professionalism when it comes to publicity, shutting down Goldstein when it came to a similar discussion regarding Johnny Depp’s supposed lack of patience with Mann’s exacting on-the-set process. “For me, what goes on in a film set is sacrosanct,” Mann tells Goldstein, “so I have nothing to say about what went on.”

All this discussion about Mann’s 66-year-old swagger and bad boy tenacity makes for a great lead-in to what I consider the meat of the piece, a two-graph juxtaposition between the director and the subject of his latest film:

It’s not so hard to see parallels between Mann, who has the fierce independence of an earlier generation of Hollywood filmmakers, and Dillinger, who is portrayed in “Public Enemies” as something of an anachronism, a lone wolf being squeezed out of the bank-robbing trade by the growing corporatization of crime. A key element in Mann’s conception of the film — which he wrote with Ronan Bennett and Ann Biderman — is that it wasn’t just J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI who was gunning for Dillinger, but the newly organized crime syndicates who saw freelance outlaws like Dillinger as threats to their nationwide business aspirations.

“Dillinger was actually obsolete, but he was so damn good at what he did that he managed to survive, despite all the horrible attrition around him,” explains Mann, who makes a point in the film of showing that virtually all of Dillinger’s cohorts were gunned down before he famously meets his end outside Chicago’s Biograph Theater. “There are two big evolutionary forces at work. There’s what Hoover is doing with the FBI, with information gathering and data management. And there’s organized crime, being cash rich, moving into corporate capitalism, and they don’t want these Depression outlaws around [inspiring the Feds to pass crime legislation] against moving money across interstate lines.”

I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you I want to talk “Public Enemies” in depth right this second, but a June 23 embargo date has my hands tied. And that’s fair enough, because it’s a film that deserves some time to percolate. Check out the rest of Goldstein’s inteview at The Big Picture.

(Oh, funniest aside from the piece, what with all the talk of exactitude: “I got a little taste of it myself, cooling my heels in Mann’s outer office before the filmmaker came out to meet me, with his assistant explaining that I’d have to wait ‘until he finishes thinking.’”)

So we should expect Variety's review up likely tomorrow night (to be printed in the 6/23 issue). That's the embargo the NYPost violated.

Check this out! I love hearing stories like this.

http://movies.yahoo.com/featur...johnny-depp-tip.html

Variety respects more than likes it:

Public Enemies
A Universal release of a Universal Pictures presentation in association with Relativity Media of a Forward Pass/Misher Films production in association with Tribeca Prods. and Appian Way. Produced by Kevin Misher, Michael Mann. Executive producer, G. Mac Brown. Co-producers, Bryan H. Carroll, Gusmano Cesaretti, Kevin de la Noy. Directed by Michael Mann. Screenplay, Ronan Bennett, Michael Mann, Ann Biderman, based on the book "Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34," by Bryan Burrough.

John Dillinger - Johnny Depp
Melvin Purvis - Christian Bale
Billie Frechette - Marion Cotillard
"Red" Hamilton - Jason Clarke
Agent Carter Baum - Rory Cochrane
J. Edgar Hoover - Billy Crudup
Homer Van Meter - Stephen Dorff
Charles Winstead - Stephen Lang


By TODD MCCARTHYMichael Mann ambitiously tries to forge the historical, iconographic and cultural aspects of American gangsterdom in "Public Enemies," with results more admirable than electrifying. Centering on bank robber John Dillinger, the most publicized of the many Depression-era outlaws whose transgressions fostered the rise of the FBI, Hollywood's specialist in great-looking crime stories has put images on the screen that are compelling to watch even though the overall impact is muted. Oddly, too, the film is somewhat shortchanged by its great star, Johnny Depp, who disappointingly has chosen to play Dillinger as self-consciously cool rather than earthy and gregarious. With dark commercial clouds currently hovering over expensive big-star vehicles and period pieces, Universal has no choice but to push the film hard as a glamorous gangbuster entertainment, which it is only in part. Mid-level biz is most likely.
For all his celebrity, Dillinger has only fronted two previous Hollywood features, and low-budgeters at that: Max Nosseck's undistinguished, wildly fictional 1945 Monogram cheapie starring a tough Lawrence Tierney, and John Milius' uneven 1973 AIP effort in which Warren Oates' performance emphasized the anti-hero's folksy and funny sides. Neither is very satisfactory, leaving a void "Public Enemies" endeavors to fill with a full-canvas approach that, inspired by the enormous detail provided by Bryan Burrough's terrific 2004 book, hews with considerable, although not complete, fidelity to the historical record.

Like other Mann films, this one offers a lot of ominously rumbling, meticulously embroidered downtime occasionally interrupted by spasms of violence and action. After briefly alluding to Dillinger's prior nine-year prison term, the yarn begins cracklingly with the outlaw engineering the mass escape of old cohorts from the Indiana State Penitentiary. The year is 1933, "the golden age of bank robbery," as a front title puts it, a time when the public readily extended its sympathy to robbers who preyed upon the banks, which many blamed for their financial distress.

The specific sociopolitical conditions of the time are crucial to the story, but one big thing almost entirely missing from "Public Enemies" is the Depression itself. It's suggestive of where Mann's true interests lie -- or perhaps, where they don't -- that one almost never sees poverty, desperation or even poor grooming; everyone here wears fabulous clothes and almost always looks their very best. Dillinger most frequently robbed banks in small or medium-sized towns, but here he only bothers with vast marble palaces of impeccable design.

In Depp's unavoidably attractive impersonation, Dillinger is a personable, somewhat low-key guy who's loyal to his pals and alluring to the ladies, particularly to nightclub coat-check girl Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard), who quickly becomes his companion. Advised by his smart criminal cohort Alvin Karpis (Giovanni Ribisi) that "what we're doin' won't last forever," Dillinger replies that he has thoughts of doing nothing else because he's "having too much fun."

Karpis proves correct, however, since J. Edgar Hoover's FBI quickly mobilizes to address the mayhem at large in the country's heartland. Hoover (Billy Crudup, disarmingly good) appoints tight-lipped straight arrow Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) to run his Chicago office. Purvis and his crew inexorably put the screws on, just as the city's organized crime syndicate, run by Al Capone's old No. 2, Frank Nitti (Bill Camp), becomes annoyed by the FBI scrutiny aroused by Dillinger and other loose cannons.

So "Public Enemies" emerges as a formidable tapestry documenting the indelible seismic shifts of large criminal and law enforcement entities that significantly define an era. As before in Mann's work, there is a magisterial inevitability to the way the opposing forces gradually converge until violent confrontation is inevitable, a style that justifies the time and attention to detail involved in creating it.

The methodical approach makes the violence particularly startling. The highlight here is a nocturnal attack by Purvis' team on Dillinger, "Baby Face" Nelson (Stephen Graham) and others holed up at the remote Little Bohemia lodge. Much attention is paid to the quality of the gunshots, the sounds really pop, and Dante Spinotti's HD cinematography excels at rendering the darkest possible nighttime blacks upon which the gun blasts expode with bursts of white light.

Script by Irish scribe Ronan Bennett, Mann and Ann Biderman dives intelligently and deeply into its subject, although it is Mann's way to deliberately pare connective tissue, a strategy magnified here by the unintelligibility of a fair amount of dialogue. The chilliness verging on artiness of the style suggests a director bent on suppressing his instincts as a popular entertainer, which would actually be fine if balanced by a warm central performance. Curiously, though, after letting loose in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" pictures and other films, Depp reverts to a more withdrawn, self-regarding posture, portraying Dillinger as an man who, having discovered his role in life, determined to play it according to a script of his own devising.

Bale plays Purvis as a clenched stoic trying to keep his deep tension bottled up, while Cotillard, speaking English with just a slight accent, is lovely and fine as the lady who wins the bad man's heart.

Clad in similar suits and large coats, topped by virtually identical haircuts and given few opportunities to pop out of the backgrounds (it's a variation on the "Black Hawk Down" syndrome), even some of the known secondary players can be difficult to identify. Still, one who does shine is Stephen Lang, from Mann's old "Crime Story" TV show, terrific as the lawman who utters the film's final lines. Ribisi as Karpis, Peter Gerety as Dillinger's shrewd showboating attorney and Branka Katic as the woman who betrays the outlaw to the feds all have their brief moments.

Mann's decision to shoot in HD rather than film again has its plusses and minuses; the detail and depth of field are phenomenal in the dark scenes, but the bright flaring, occasional unnatural movements and excessive detailing of skin flaws remain annoying, as does the insubstantiality of the images compared to those created on film. Digital may represent the future, but the future is not entirely here yet, and the pictorial qualities of Mann's films prior to "Collateral" remain decisively superior to the recent trio.

Other production qualities are exceptional across the board, and extensive location work in Illinois and Wisconsin pays off in physical authenticity. Elliot Goldenthal's brooding score combines with period music to create an effectively eclectic soundtrack. With: John Ortiz, Giovanni Ribisi, David Wenham, John Michael Bolger, Bill Camp, Matt Craven, Don Frye, Stephen Graham, Peter Gerety, Shawn Hatosy, Spencer Garrett, John Hoogenakker, Branka Katic, Domenick Lombardozzi, Ed Bruce, James Russo, Christian Stolte, Channing Tatum, Carey Mulligan, Casey Siemaszko, Lili Taylor, Leelee Sobieski.

Camera (color, HD), Dante Spinotti; editors, Paul Rubell, Jeffrey Ford; music, Elliot Goldenthal; music supervisors, Bob Badami, Kathy Nelson; production designer, Nathan Crowley; supervising art director, Patrick Lumb; art director, William Ladd Skinner; set designers, David Krummel, David Tennenbaum, Jeff B. Adams Jr., Karen Fletcher Trujillo, Robert Woodruff, Kevin Depinet, Scott Matula; set decorator, Rosemary Brandenburg; costume designer, Colleen Atwood; sound (DTS/SDDS/Dolby Digital), Ed Novick; supervising sound editors, Laurent Kossayan, Jeremy Peirson; re-recording mixers, Kevin O'Connell, Beau Borders; special visual effects, Illusion Arts, VFX Collective, Hammerhead, Invisible Effects, Wildfire Visual Effects, Pixel Playground, Lowry Digital; visual effects supervisor, Robert Stadd; special effects supervisor, Bruno Van Zeebroeck; stunt coordinator, Darrin Prescott; associate producer, Maria Norman; assistant director, Bob Wagner; second unit directors, Michael Waxman, Bryan H. Carroll; second unit camera, Gary Jay; casting, Avy Kaufman, Bonnie Timmermann. Reviewed at Los Angeles Film Festival (Centerpiece Screening), June 23, 2009. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 140 MIN.

H'wood Reporter says this is no Bonnie & Clyde; but hey! sounds good enough to be a best picture nominee...

Public Enemies -- Film Review
By Kirk Honeycutt, June 24, 2009 04:23 ET
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Cast and CrewExecutive Producer: G. Mac Brown
Executive Producer: Jane Rosenthal
Producer: Michael Mann
Producer: Kevin Misher
Co-producer: Bryan Carroll
Co-producer: Gusmano Cesaretti
Director: Michael Mann
Screen Writer: Michael Mann
Screen Writer: Ann Biderman
Screen Writer: Ronan Bennett
Director of Photography: Dante Spinotti
Editor: Paul Rubell
Unit Prod. Manager: Julie Herrin
First Assistant Director: Bob Wagner
Prod. Designer: Nathan Crowley
Art Director: Patrick Lumb
Set Decorator: Rosemary Brandenburg
Costume Designer: Colleen Atwood
Prod. Coordinator: Jeremy Beiermann
Special Effects: Bruno Van Zeebroeck
Visual Effects Supervisor: Robert Stadd
Stunt coordinator: Darren Prescott
Sound mixer: Ed Novick
Casting director: Avy Kaufman
Casting director: Bonnie Timmermann
Unit Publicist: Dave Fulton
Cast: Johnny Depp (Actor), Christian Bale (Actor), Marion Cotillard (Actor), Giovanni Ribisi (Actor), Stephen Dorff (Actor), Jason Clarke (Actor), David Wenham (Actor), Stephen Graham (Actor)
Bottom Line: A missed opportunity to make gangster picture with flesh-and-blood characters.

Michael Mann's John Dillinger movie "Public Enemies" is slow to heat up and never quite comes to a boil. The elements certainly are here with the always charismatic Johnny Depp as the Depression-era bank robber and, in some quarters, idolized Robin Hood. And Marion Cotillard, off her Oscar win, plays his lady friend. But Mann and co-writers Ronan Bennett and Ann Biderman never crack the meaning of John Dillinger.

The film veers between fact and legend, sticking mostly with facts, but still is unable to bring its protagonist into focus as either an amiable sociopath or a true anti-hero. He winds up being just a guy who robs banks, which probably is all he ever was, so why such a lavish production? John Milius accomplished as much if not more with "Dillinger" in 1973 at the cost of probably two scenes from "Public Enemies."

Because there's nothing in the marketplace right now like "Public Enemies," Universal should recoup its costs between the domestic and international boxoffice. But the film lacks the juice promised by the teaming of such extraordinary filmmakers with a cast as large as a Hooverville encampment.

There is both too much going on here and not enough: multiple jail breaks, frequent bank robberies, deadly shootouts with G-men, characters introduced then lost track of. You'd probably have to read the source material, a book by Bryan Burrough, to understand the significance of many scenes.

The expected big moments are here: Dillinger breaks out of "escape proof" Crown Point, Ind., jail, driving off in the female sheriff's (Lili Taylor) own car. The shootout at the Little Bohemia Lodge in northern Wisconsin is a fiasco for the fledgling Federal Bureau of Investigation, which allowed Dillinger to escape.

Incensed G-man Melvin Purvis (a stoic Christian Bale) figures Dillinger will foolishly head back to Chicago, so his men watch the apartment of Dillinger's half-French dame Billie Frechette (Cotillard) around the clock. She still manages to elude them, but Purvis' men finally do arrest her while Dillinger drives away from the scene without anyone noticing him! This sets up the famed betrayal of the "Lady in Red," who actually wore a yellow dress.

If the above feels like a disjointed synopsis, the film is even more of a jumble. Too many of the era's personalities parade before the cameras -- look, there's "Pretty Boy" Floyd (Channing Tatum) getting shot at long range by Purvis; there's famed bad guys Alvin Karpis (Giovanni Ribisi) and "Baby Face" Nelson (Stephen Graham) plotting jobs with Dillinger; there's crime boss Frank Nitti (Bill Camp) growing tired of Dillinger's juvenile shenanigans; there's young J. Edgar Hoover (a stiff Billy Crudup) just getting his feet wet!

You can't keep them all straight, and a muddy soundtrack doesn't help. Depp had his own sound technician, according to the end credits, but you still can't hear him. Between mumbled lines and busy music cues, much of the film's dialogue is indistinct.

The anticipated points are made about how Dillinger and Hoover carefully track their own publicity. The Dillinger-Frechette love match is built up into something it probably never was. Indeed, the woman with whom Dillinger fatefully attends his last picture show -- Polly Hamilton (Leelee Sobieski) -- is believed to be his new girlfriend at the time.

What's missing is an investigation into character. Who are all these people? Why do they matter to us now? These people with the colorful monikers were the rock stars of their era. But onscreen, they come off as vapid, two-bit hoods. They're smarter than the cops, their jailers and the Feds, but that isn't saying much in those days.

Depp's performance is more than credible, but biography seems to place him in a straightjacket. He might be too faithful to the real John Dillinger, which doesn't allow him to create a character of the imagination, someone who will connect with us today.

The great Depression-era bank-robbing movie "Bonnie and Clyde," to which "Public Enemies" undoubtedly will be compared, keeps the focus narrow and intense and somehow spoke to its counterculture era. "Public Enemies" sprawls everywhere with so many characters and winds up being mostly a history lesson unrelated to anything in the zeitgeist.

Mann oversees top-drawer work by cinematographer Dante Spinotti, production designer Nathan Crowley and tremendous second-unit personnel. The strategies, setups and shootouts are smoothly staged, but the human element goes missing.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: seanflynn,

How weird. When you posted that piece in the other thread about 10 nominees, I read them talking about Public Enemies as a potential Best Pic nominee now. I was expecting some great review. Um, not exactly.

The person who wrote that article was not the critic reviewing the movie.

True enough. I am going to a screening of it tomorrow night. Ah, I do love free movies.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: LadyHathor25,

quote:

Originally posted by LadyHathor25:
True enough. I am going to a screening of it tomorrow night. Ah, I do love free movies.

How do you get to see so many free movies? Are you still in college? I got to go to a bunch of free movies when I was at UCLA but I always thought that was an L.A. thing rather than just a college thing. Maybe even just a UCLA thing because I did not see people offering free tickets all the time at my grad school.