"Public Enemies" Review

Filmmaker Michael Mann is not one for escapism. He favors injecting the audience with harsh reality ("Heat," "Collateral"). Sometimes, his realism feels too manufactured ("Miami Vice"). However, his new film, Public Enemies, uses that feeling to its advantage. This is especially evident in the scene in which central character, iconic bankrobber John Dillinger (Johnny Depp), sits in a dark theatre watching a gangster film. As the images resembling his life unfold, Dillinger realizes that as close as they mirror him on the outside, they could never completely capture the real truth, the staggering pain from within. Mann realizes this too. And with his purposely gimmicky, gritty digital camerawork and ambiguous characters, Mann, like Depp's Dillinger in the theatre scene, telegraphs a wink to the audience: "Public Enemies" is only a movie.

Mann has never been so self aware. With this film, he takes his manufactured realism to the extreme, creating an effective, almost cathartic parody of himself and commentary on the hyperrealistic crime films he's helped inspire ("The Bourne Ultimatum," "The Lookout"). The film comments on the bare bones quality of recent crime dramas through the stilted relationships of its characters. "I like baseball, movies, fast cars, good clothes, and you. What else you need to know?" Dillinger plainly asks a woman early on in the film. Mann's version of Dillinger is symbolic of all the determined and therefore detached crime characters in film as of late: Jason Bourne, James Bond, etc. He is sometimes unbearably ambiguous and in that sense, he is Mann's critique of those characters. If you find yourself desperately wanting more insight into Dillinger and his pursuer, Melvin Purvis's behavior, Mann has achieved his goal. He is trying to point out what crime films similar to "Public Enemies" are currently lacking.

Mann also comments on the overwrought realism of crime films with his use of digital camerawork. In "Public Enemies," it seems that the more the visual style tries to recreate reality, the more it makes you aware that you are watching a movie. That is the point, though.

Now, one could argue that making a commentary on the flawed crime genre instead of trying to improve and transcend it is less than admirable. Some could also say that Mann is not trying to make a commentary at all and that "Public Enemies" is just a straightforward gangster flick. Like Mann, I hope that crime stories like these have more than meets the eye.