Public Enemies vs Changeling

I’m not sure why they called it Public Enemies, plural. The only character given any focus at all in Michael Mann’s new movie is John Dillinger. I suppose calling it Public Enemy would cause confusion with viewers looking for Chuck D. Dillinger was part of a gang of bank robbers in the early 1930s. We don’t learn much about any of the gang members besides Dillinger—Pretty Boy Floyd is only identified after he’s killed, for example—but it doesn’t matter much because John Dillinger is played by Johnny Depp, who is enough of a character actor to hold our interest, and enough of a movie star to be on the poster by himself. Depp is great as Dillinger. All of his dialogue sounds straight from classic gangster movies. He says things like “It’s not where you came from, it’s where you’re going.” It’s all clichés, but Dillinger knew the image he wanted to project and created a public persona to match his movie heroes. The top coats, the hats, the leaping about, were all parts of a role he was playing for the masses, his co-conspirators, the ladies, and himself. As long as he believed he was a character, an icon, then maybe his own villainy wouldn’t rear its head and put him out of business. Dillinger was a horrible person. He was a thief and a murderer. He had a bit of a Robin Hood reputation because he wouldn’t steal from customers inside banks; he only stole from the banks. I wonder if he ever asked whose money that was? 

The movie opens with a thrilling jailbreak. It’s planned to the second, and goes awry, but the result is Dillinger strutting out into the yard a free man, so he’s happy. The action in Public Enemies is filmed unlike practically anything else out there. Much of it is hand-held HD, so when Dillinger and his gang run through the forest at night, it’s like we’re right behind them with flashlights. And when they’re trapped in a cabin during a shoot-out, I was ducking bullets for the first time since Children of Men. Public Enemies is mostly brilliant action scenes. It follows a pattern: confusing bank heist followed by confusing chase, followed by capture, or not. For a film so dead-set on only presenting the facts (character development of John Dillinger starts and stops with he liked to dress up and go to the movies), there’s a surprising lack of reminding us of location and date. If you don’t know your landmarks, you’ll be hard-pressed to guess if the characters are in Kansas City, or Chicago or Ohio or anywhere else. What matters is Dillinger as legend, and we get that in spades. When he strides into a bank and jumps up over the counter, it might as well be James Bond or Batman. I guess since it’s Dillinger, and he was a terrible criminal, it should be disgusting to be cheering him on. But this is a movie, and it’s Johnny Depp, and his coat swings up in slow-motion. Sorry, but the movie Dillinger is pretty cool. And when the good guys are as inept as in Public Enemies, well whom else would I root for?

Catching Dillinger was of huge importance to J. Edgar Hoover, played by Billy Crudup. It never occurred to me that Hoover was ever young. He’s one of those people who seemed born an angry adult. Crudup is good, carrying a few extra pounds and showing Hoover’s desperation in his voice, stance and face in nearly every scene. Hoover was on the verge of being publicly humiliated for his incompetence on the war on crime. Capturing a public villain like Dillinger would not only put the fear into the crime underworld, it would also make Hoover a hero to his government (and create a whole other brand of public enemies, but that’s another story). Of course Hoover was behind the scenes. Acting out his plan was Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale), who was smart, determined, under-funded, under-staffed, and potentially unable to find or capture John Dillinger. Bale is as good as Depp, but he’s got a much harder role. How do you play the guy who has to capture the character the audience wants to see get away? Bale chooses not to go big, instead letting us see that Purvis was a man with a job that had to be done. We get no insight to the man off the job, but Bale shows us his frustration and exhaustion not only with the manhunt, but also with the bureaucracy of Hoover’s policies. He only shares one scene with Depp near the end of the movie. It’s worth the wait.

Public Enemies is a solid movie, but it’s not as impactful as I’d hoped. Michael Mann is such an exciting director, I was hoping this would be his Goodfellas, or his L.A. Confidential. The acting is good (with a nice cameo by Giovanni Ribisi), the action is exemplary, but there’s something off. I think it lies in that adherence to remaining so historically accurate. This is still a movie, right? John Dillinger’s life is never shown outside of a prison, bank or getaway car, aside for a few striking scenes with his girlfriend, Billie (Marion Cottilard, fantastic, especially considering I didn’t even know she could speak English). Their courtship is basically John just telling her she’s his girl, and then they’re desperately in love. Cottilard makes Billie the center of the film during a brutal interrogation scene. She’s so good, she makes you wanna go rob a bank for her. In the interest of drama, I wouldn’t have minded a few made-up scenes, just to give Billie more screen-time, and to show that Dillinger had something on his mind as he planned that next big score.

Changeling is another non-fiction period film, by another of my favorite directors. In this case though, history is seen as flexible, at times to a fault. Whereas Public Enemies could have used a few scenes away from the police reports, Changeling had a few moments where I was thinking I’d like to see some documentation. I liked it, but it’s pretty much full of shit at times.

Angelina Jolie stars as Christine Collins, a single mother working for the telephone company in Los Angeles in 1928. She comes home one day to find her son Walter is missing. After an excrutiating waiting period, Christine is relieved that the police have found her boy. Only…that’s not her boy. She tells them immediately, but the police bully her into making a public show of gratitude, with the implication that they’ll keep looking. So Christine takes Not Walter home and cares for him, while basically all of Los Angeles tries to Gaslight her into thinking he really is her son, she’s just crazy for not recognizing him. The police insist he’s her son, and produce a doctor who will testify that the months he was away could have had a biological effect on the boy (which would include, in this case, making the boy shorter and performing a circumcision.). Christine battles the system, and winds up in an asylum with other mouthy women. In these scenes, we start to feel the strain of the screenwriter a bit. Up to this point, I’d appreciated the extra, “off the record” moments of Christine at work, with Not Walter, and quietly navigating her home and neighborhood as only someone haunted can. But in the asylum, Changeling took on an only-in-a-movie quality. The nurses are so horrific they’re straight out of a Marilyn Manson video, her interrogations are predictably damning, and Christine is treated to one of those crazy Silkwood showers with a firehose. There are two saving graces during these moments: while locked up, Christine meets Carol, a prostitute who teaches her a little about the corrupt police department, sisterhood, asylums, life, drugs, etc. Carol is, in this situation, the Angelina Jolie character from Girl Interrupted, and Angelina Jolie is Winona Ryder. Carol is played by Amy Ryan, an actor I can’t see enough lately. The other positive aspect of these scenes is the emergence of Rev. Gustav Briegleb, played by John Malkovich, to the forefront of the story. When you hear that Malkovich is playing a minister, you’re likely to assume it’s a dangerous character. Turns out he’s Christine’s biggest support, and the only chance she has at making a case against the L.A.P.D.

Changeling was directed with Clint Eastwood’s usual restraint and skill at getting open, honest performances from his actors. This is probably the best Angelina Jolie performance so far, and the best from Malkovich in years. The look of the film is nice too. I’m not sure how much was shot on sets, but I believed everything was Los Angeles circa 1928. There’s another, much more sinister plot at work in Changeling, one I won’t reveal here. But it’s also handled with as little exploitation as possible. I’m assuming it’s true; if it’s not, it’s a huge detour from the original story, even bigger than any shenanigans at play in the asylum. The film concludes with Christine, back at work, trying to find some peace of mind after her ordeal. Eastwood knows as long as he ends with an emotional truth, selling the rest is easy. Eh, close enough.

Public Enemies: B+

Changeling: B