BOTTOM LINE: Aside from Johnny Depp’s valiant attempt to create a memorable and interesting lead character, “Public Enemies” is a rather sloppy piece of filmmaking from ‘veteran’ director Michael Mann; no character, some poorly shot sequences, incoherent editing and no story.

THE GOOD: “Public Enemies” seeks to cover that period in American history of the Depression era when bank robbers became a regular occurrence and some times gathered notoriety and fame for their exploits against those institutions that brought on the Depression. John Dillinger is one of the most famous, and as played here by Johnny Depp, we are treated to a character who lives the fast life without consequence, but manages to have a sense of morality, however warped and twisted it is. In one bank heist, Dillinger refuses the money of a customer, saying, “I’m not here for your money, I’m here for the bank’s money.” His single-minded devotion to his girlfriend Billie (Marion Cotillard) is admirable, as are his slick moves during the bank heists where he has the timed to perfection. The film manages to touch on a number of interesting historical moments such as the formation of the FBI as we know it today and the subsequent introduction of new investigative techniques.

THE BAD: Director Michael Mann has done a shoddy job with this film, in most respects. The film does not orientate you well in to the lives of these characters, starting with a woefully edited opening sequence which manages to jump all over the place without any coherence or clarity. It is also in this opening sequence that David Wenham pops up and summarily disappears for no clear reason. Michael Mann’s visual style leaves a lot to be desired; although some of the high definition digital images look great, others have obviously been dramatically under lit, giving the appearance of an amateur home movie; done at home it looks amateur, but done in a $100M+ movie, it’s “art” – whatever. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of all however is the lack of dramatic punch, story or character. The film jumps from place to place without much sense of tension, drama or even structure. All of the characters, including Dillinger, are at best two dimensional, with Christian Bale suffering the most with his badly directed performance as Melvin Purvis. The whole B-story of the creation of the FBI is relegated to a few perfunctory scenes, and as such, represent a wasted opportunity to cover a part of history on film that has not been touched (at least in a big film like this). Without this framework, historical notes at the beginning and at the end of the film have no meaning. For example, we are told in a footnote at the end of the film that Purvis died by his own hand some years later. However, there is nothing in the film to suggest why his character would have killed himself, especially as he beats Dillinger in the end. As such, the footnote should have been dropped entirely. All of this questions Michael Mann’s status as one of Hollywood’s top directors; he may have been in the past, but “Public Enemies” continues a noticeable trend in his films of late that suggests he may not be that good a director after all.