Marshall Fine: HuffPost Review: Public Enemies

Jumping off virtually from a standing start, Michael Mann's Public Enemies takes a while to find its feet and its balance. But when it does - well, to coin a phrase, it comes on like gangbusters. Working from a script he cowrote with Ann Biderman and Ronan Bennett, Mann creates a straightforward tale about America's most famous bank-robber, John Dillinger, given the full charismatic treatment by Johnny Depp - charismatic, if enigmatic. While it plays a little loose with the facts, it builds in intensity as it jumps forward through the final year of Dillinger's life. Mann, a director occasionally too prone to emphasizing style over substance (the unnecessary Miami Vice movie, for example), here seems more obsessed with story than character. In following Dillinger on his increasingly dangerous trail to his final showdown outside a Chicago movie theater in July 1934, he's working from a script that shows little interest in getting under Dillinger's skin or inside his psyche. Action is ... (link)