Johnny Depp portrays infamous 1930s bank robber John Dillinger in ‘Public Enemies’. Director Michael Mann has made a career out of making stylish action epics with great shootouts and interesting characters. ‘Public Enemies’ is no doubt stylish, it no doubt has great shootouts, but the characters are a bit flat. There’s no real character development during the 150 minute running time. The film simply shows a year-long view into the final year of Dillinger’s life. He is portrayed as cold, precise and mechanical, but the film is made quite differently.

It’s loose and swift in execution and feel, partially because of the handheld cameras used to film it, partially because of the mostly banjo and roots-oriented soundtrack. This gives the film an uneven feeling, given the large contrast between the subject matter and the handling of the subject matter.

The film is set in 1933, starting when John Dillinger breaks out his gang members out of prison. Dillinger travels the country, looting millions of dollars from banks along the way in a year-long crime spree. He becomes something of a hero to the country, given that in the Great Depression banks obviously weren’t well regarded by the public. At this time, FBI agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) has been assigned to capture Dillinger, by any means necessary. Neither men will give up without a fight.

The last couple times Johnny Depp was in a major blockbuster, he was either a drunken pirate or a barber who cut up his customers into meat pies (literally), so this is a sort of return to a “normal” character for him. However, it shows the eccentricity of most of his roles when a low-key character for him is a legendary bank robber. He is perfect in this. Christian Bale is a bit underused in this film, given that he’s probably the best actor of our generation. He’s very good, but he’s mostly in action scenes and not many dramatic moments of dialogue. That said, he looks insanely cool firing off a Tommy gun with one hand.

Which brings us to probably the best aspects of the film – the shootouts. This film doesn’t too many, but the ones it does have are unforgettable. The best part of the film is a 30-minute sequence where Dillinger’s in a house secluded in the woods, surrounded by his accomplices. There’s four cars outside packed with armed federal agents. The results are classic, worthy of the best scenes in Sergio Leone’s The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly and director Michael Mann’s own Heat. Like I said earlier the cinematography is loose and wild, but it is gorgeous. You can tell lots of effort goes into the sets and costumes, it replicates the era with incredible detail, and will likely net the film some Oscar nominations come February.

Public Enemies is a well-acted, gorgeously shot crime film with some great action and one or two scenes that are simply unforgettable. It’s a bit uneven and has some pacing issues, but thats easily forgiven. If only every summer film was this good. A-