Public Enemies (2009)

This sat on my list for a long time before my friend and I were looking at possibilities. The same friend had rewatched Road to Perdition with me, so I'm not surprised he wanted another gangster flick that briefly includes Frank Nitti (Bill Camp herein).

As the title implies, the story concerns multiple notorious criminals, but they've been pared down quite a bit from the Bryan Burrough novel. Most of the focus is on John Dillinger (Johnny Depp in one of his last normal-looking roles), starting with his 1933 arrival at -- and immediate break from -- Indiana State Prison, so he's already notorious. When he's not committing armed robbery or having standoffs with law enforcement, he's wooing one Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard) from the moment he lays eyes on her. The other major focal character is FBI Agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale), in charge of the pursuit.

I suspect that the title also refers to Purvis and other ostensible lawmen. Like many a frontier posse -- or Eliot Ness and company in The Untouchables, for that matter -- they do a number of things that would not be widely approved, if even allowed, in later decades. Only one of their acts crosses the line in the eyes of fellow agents, and I don't know that the perpetrator gets worse than a reprimand.

That said, even if they did everything by the book, they'd probably face the contempt of much of the populace. Dillinger wins admiration for his skill and charisma, sometimes doing little favors for people who don't get in his way. No wonder authorities no longer speak of "Public Enemy #1" and such: It's better to deprive crooks of a coolness factor.

Does he look cool to us? Not exactly. While Depp's acting is one of the highlights, Dillinger is hard to like up close, even if he's not as trigger-happy as, say, Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham). Almost everywhere he goes, ugliness follows. He abuses Billie, albeit with relative subtlety, not even raising his voice but stating matter-of-factly that she'll do as he says.

I'm OK with that, because director Michael Mann tried to stick pretty close to real history, taking liberties only as seemingly necessary. Key scenes were even shot at the original sites. A few details were ironically toned down for credibility.

Alas, there is still quite a roster of errors on IMDb, especially anachronisms. And for all the kudos given to Cotillard and Billy Crudup, who plays J. Edgar Hoover, I question the accuracy of their accents.

I can see why ratings across the main sites are all fair to middling. PE just doesn't feel like a movie we haven't seen before. At best, it's like a modern version of contemporary gangster flicks, albeit throwing real names around. As I've said before, freshness isn't Mann's strong suit.

I'm not sure how my friend felt about PE itself. He and I could have fun watching just about anything together. For my part, I join the fair-to-middling chorus.