Johnny Depp portrays John Dillinger. Johnny Depp and his precious mug and girly frame portraying a harden criminal is like having Steven Seagal portray Richard Simmons. You need someone to be quirky? Need someone to be pretty? Hire Depp. Need someone to look like it will hurt if he hits you? Depp ain't on the list.

Depp's casting isn't just a problem because he's plainly not a good match for the role. Depp is a limited actor. I know, I know, we're all supposed to agree he's one of the most brilliant actors of our generation. I don't think so. He is gifted at quirk. Give him a over-sized role where he gets to play and ham it up, there is no one better (Pirates of the Caribbean, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Edward Sissorhands). Give him a human being? He doesn't seem to be able to grow beyond his own skin. If you look at his straight roles (Secret Window, Finding Neverland, Blow) he is incapable of giving a memorable performance. It seems he needs the protection of a clown nose to ply his trade.

The film as a whole is not one I can recommend. It is flat, miserably flat. The movie trails the violent and wild final thirteen months of Dillinger's life but it never digs into the man. We are given a disjointed history lesson without motive or emotion. The bank robbers rob a bank, they shoot it out with cops, they drive away, there's some hollow scenes between Dillinger and his gal Billie (Marion Cotillard). Every once in a while there are interjections of Agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) squinting his eyes and grumbling as he trails the criminals. Plenty goes on but nothing really happens.

Director Michael Mann tries to straddle making a star-driven Hollywood movie and a patient "serious" movie. Mann is careful to keep his content somber but can't help but drift into typical Hollywood cheesiness. His "Hollywood" choices stand in stark contrast to the rest of the film. An example is the over-produced twangy guitar riffs that blast during running gun battles. The out of period music jumping in from nowhere stinks of someone following the notes coming from the studio demanding they try to liven it up for the kids.

Screenwriters Mann, Ann Biderman and Ronan Bennett fail to condense Dillinger's whirlwind crimespree into a digestable narrative. The film is terribly choppy with criminals and characters passing in and out as the story moves from town to town. The relationships between the characters are assumed instead of developed because there is so much rushing to the next scene. We are never given a chance to hook into any of the characters so their efforts have no depth and their deaths have no impact.

Given that the two leads, Dillinger and Purvis, only spend five minutes together on screen there isn't much of a conflict. Yes, Dillinger is confronted by cops but its all very faceless. Dillinger's and Purvis' scenes are seperate and never meld to build any momentum. By the time Dillinger's infamous death comes, Mann tries to make the tension swell, but there is none there. We are left with a numb scene of a man being shot to death and having his death mean nothing.

Skip this one. You're bound to forget you watched this in a few months anyway so save your time.


Related Reviews:
Johnny Depp movies
Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Finding Neverland (2004)


Other Critic’s Reviews:
Cinema Autopsy
Black Sheep Reviews

Labels: Billy Crudup, Christian Bale, film, Johnny Depp, movie review