Criminals and Michael Mann go together like milk and cookies, so the story of the final days of 1930s "Public Enemy Number 1" John Dillinger would seem a perfect fit for this action oriented director. There are, indeed, action sequences aplenty with bank robberies, prison breaks, shootouts, even a girlfriend workover. No shortage of old style machine guns being fired from the runners of old style cars by old style hoods wearing long coats and hats. What is on very short supply here, however, is coherent story telling and character development. The period details are perfect, from clothes to sets and Johnny Depp makes a marvelous John Dillinger but there was way too much unimaginative gunplay along with a surpising lack of any spark. The cinematography is deliberately dark, a choice which made it feel washed out and grubby instead of menacing. I realize that every Mann film can't be as brilliant as "Heat", but I expected him to do more with this story than simply present a rather routine crime saga.
The centerpiece of the action is a cat-and-mouse game between the wildly successful Dillinger and his uptight FBI agent nemesis Melvin Purvis (a very stoic Christian Bale). FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (played by Billy Crudup in a creepy characterization) is on a mission to clean up America, including apprehending the most notorious criminals of the day (Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson). Purvis has been charged with bringing in the popular Dillinger and his gang, a task he quickly realizes will be much more difficult than anticipated as the street smart criminals run circles around the typically doltish Feds. Of course there's a beautiful, loyal girlfriend for Dillinger (Oscar winner Marion Cotillard) plus a double crossing madam (Branka Katic) who fingers Dillinger after being threatened with deportation. Aside from Dillinger, the only character explored in any detail is Purvis, who begins having guilt and misgivings about his role in bringing Dillinger to justice as well as the methods used by the FBI. A large supporting cast, including Channing Tatum as Pretty Boy Floyd, Stephen Graham as Baby Face Nelson and Stephen Lang as Charles Winstead (the man who finally guns down Dillinger) pops in and out of the action so quickly we can barely keep them straight. Let's hope Mann hasn't decided to abandon his edgy, multi-layered style of action filmmaking for a video game approach.
Things to love about this movie: Depp's performance is captivating and made the movie for me; an exciting beginning with Dillinger's jail breakout of several gang members; good chemistry between Depp and Cotillard
Things to hate about this movie: Mann's usually brilliantly realized action scenes fall into a boring sameness here and I had trouble telling one shootout from another
Pleasant surprises: It was nice seeing the elusive Stephen Dorff as a member of Dillinger's crew; interesting information on the real people in the story shown at the end of the film
Unpleasant surprises: The wonderful and talented Cotillard is relegated to little more than a girlfriend role
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