I think I'll catch up on some movies that were sent to me but I didn't get a chance to see for awards consideration. Last summer I was genuinely interested in how Johnny Depp would tackle gangster John Dillinger in Michael Mann's "Public Enemies". Depp always makes bold and interesting choices for his characters and Mann's stylized camera makes for dynamic story telling. In this film I understand that Mann's idea was not to rehash the highly mythologized character of Dillinger or to glorify gangster life in the late 1920's and the 1930's. My instinct would usually be to applaud this sort of thing.
Sure enough, Depp's Dillenger is ruthlessly understated, unless he's robbing a bank or escaping from prison. The film is a series of frenetic bursts of criminal activity followed by Dillinger's mundane life followed by more gunfire followed by more of Dillinger's routine. I found it to be kind of well, mundane and routine. That may have been the point but it just makes for a rather flat and uninteresting take on a legendary gangster. Don't let this turn you off to the film. You may like it better than I did if you know going in that this is a low key portrayal of a high key criminal. For me, true life doesn't always make for great cinema. In Dillinger's case, I think I liked the myth better.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
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