Public Enemies

Somewhere it is summer and girl are reading. (Just not here).







This is a very hard movie to critique. If you come into it expecting a character-driven story where all the elements fall into place, where every action and character is clearly spelled out, I think you might be disappointed. There's a lot of action, don't get me wrong, but you never understand how Dillinger and his associates came to this place--how they came together. Even who some of them are.

If however, you come into the theater expecting an impressionistic look at the thirties, a glimpse at how the FBI discovered itself and developed the tactics it would use, at how the world looked from behind the barrage of gunfire, at how the times of revered gangsters was coming to an end as their violence spilled too much onto public streets, you will be impressed. You have to let yourself climb on the sideboard of the roadster and take the ride. Don't ask too many questions.

Impressionist painters saw the world differently than the realists who came before them. But both visions are equally valid. We've had other movies that laid out the facts; this one laid out the look and the times. (IMHO)