Rated R for Robbery!

Public Enemies is a crime drama film taking place in the great depression and focusing on the criminal life of John Dillinger, and FBI agent Melvin Purvis’ hunt for the legendary bank robber. The film stars Johny Depp and Christian Bale, so suffice to say the acting is great. But does the rest of the movie live up to the acting?

Truth be told Public Enemies is a great movie when it wants to be, unfortunately it doesn’t decide it wants to be great until the second half of the film. It’s not that the first half of the film is bad, it just seems flat.

Like I said, with Johny Depp and Christian Bale in the title roles how could the acting not be fantastic? And indeed the acting is the film’s strongest point, but the problem with the film first half is how it’s presented. What I mean is that despite all the great acting, the characters all seemed one-dimensional until the latter parts of the movie. Johny Depp just seemed like “bank robber” and Christian Bale just seemed like “guy trying to catch said bank robber.” There didn’t seem to be much complexity to the characters in the earlier parts of the film (through no fault of the actors) and the movie just seemed to develop a personality a bit later then it should have.

I have to say it was quite interesting, there was nothing really bad about the first half of Public Enemies, but it somehow just didn’t leave me interested in the characters. It was as though there was plenty going on, but plenty going on without depth. Everything seemed to happen just to happen. It’s hard to describe really.

But thankfully after a few jailbreaks and historical inaccuracies the movie really picks up, and suddenly I feel like I begin to understand the characters in the way I should have all along. I began to see the true complexity and emotions of the characters that are worthy of the actors portraying them. Both Dillinger and Purvis became strong characters with conflicting character traits (in a good way) and layered personalities. Dillinger may be a bank robber, but he’s not a cold-hearted villain.

The film is rated R for violence, but I have to say most of the violence is more on a PG-13 level, but the R rating is still justified by the few more graphic scenes.  But violence aside there is a very exciting shootout between FBI agents and gangsters that almost feels like something from a quality Summer action flick, but you know with more characterization. The aforementioned jailbreak sequences also include well crafted action.

But of course Public Enemies isn’t an action movie, it is a crime drama. Unfortunately the earlier parts of the film feel much weaker then they should, but thankfully the latter half brings out the best in the film (I sound like a broken record I know, but this is an interesting case, to have two conflicting halves of one movie). The characters, dialogue, story and overall flow of the film eventually do take a turn for the best, but sadly there is a bit of an emphasis on the word “eventually.”

So all in all I think that had the first half of Public Enemies been as good as the second half, it would have been a great film. But because of the ‘flat’ first half, it will have to settle as a “mostly” really good movie. It may not be the be all end all crime drama, but you couldn’t find two better lead actors.

Bye bye Blackbird.

(1 votes, average: 7.00 out of 10, rated)

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