Public Enemies: A story about the hunt for John Dillinger in the 1930's. Although Johnny Depp is pleasing to look at, I wasn't impressed with the movie. The performances of Depp, Christian Bale and Billy Crudup were unimpressive. Crudup was a ridiculous J. Edgar Hoover. Depp's Dillinger was too nice - really, Dillinger was a hard man and Depp played him kind of soft-heartedly. Bale was steely cold but in a boring way. A hint of emotion really would have lent something to his performance. Of course Marion Cotillard was excellent.
My sentiments are echoed in the Washington Post review:
"The problem is casting. Depp and Bale, each capable of intense brooding, blow each other's circuits. There's no electricity to the rivalry because it's impossible to get a read on either man."As well as the LA Times review:
"Yet, for all its skill, “Public Enemies” is not quite a great movie. There’s something missing—a sense of urgency and discovery, a more complicated narrative path, a shrewder, tougher sense of who John Dillinger is...The movie is structured around repeated scenes of wounded men (agents as well as criminals) dying as they look into the eyes of their friends. Yet some of the dying men are barely known to us, and the device, though beautifully staged in each case, doesn’t have the power it should have had. The movie is emotionally neutered."
But Johnny is soooooo pretty to look at....
ReplyDelete