Johnny gets his gun In ‘Public Enemies'

Criminally stylish: Johnny Depp looks great as bank robber John Dillinger in “Public Enemies.”

SAN FRANCISCO —

Though faithful to Bryan Burrough’s painstakingly researched book about the epic manhunt for the notorious bank robber John Dillinger, Michael Mann’s "Public Enemies" offers more an abstract impression of the man than a fully satisfying portrait.

There was a time when outlaws like Dillinger were romanticized as folk heroes by those who envied their brazen contempt for authority. "Public Enemies" documents the phenomenon but never seeks to explain it: Dillinger, as played by Johnny Depp, is the epitome of cool — suave, seductive and casually graceful as he seems to glide into banks and social clubs.

He’s charming and loyal to a fault, but that alone does not account for his celebrity, and neither does Mann’s screenplay.

No stranger to cops, robbers and the games they play, Mann ("Miami Vice," "Heat") fails to develop compelling parallels between Dillinger and Melvin Purvis, the FBI agent handpicked by J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup) to bring in America’s most wanted criminal and make headlines in the process.

Purvis, in whom Christian Bale invests more intensity than personality, is a vigilant Boy Scout, conflicted by his determination to get his man and his distaste for the savagery the job requires.

Dillinger, who seems annoyed by his trigger-happy peers but rarely shies away from a gunfight, is a different breed. Embittered by a lengthy prison stay for robbing a grocery store, he’s a rebel with a cause: stealing enough money to live the high life in the midst of the Great Depression, lawmen be damned.

Blessed with a quick wit and dashing good looks — Depp is helpful in this department — Dillinger is rarely hurting for female companionship, though his fiercest passions are reserved for Billie (Marion Cotillard, of "La Vie en Rose"), a coat-check girl attracted by his purposeful gaze and promises of undying loyalty.

On that count, he’s not exaggerating. If "Public Enemies" teaches us anything about Dillinger, it is that he was undone, at least in part, by his refusal to abandon friends, lovers and colleagues, even those like Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham), whom he could barely tolerate.

Otherwise, insights are scarce.

Unlike Andrew Dominik’s superior "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," "Public Enemies" is not a cerebral meditation on the life of its subject. It is mostly a series of tense shootouts, and as such, highly entertaining.

Depp makes the most of an underwritten role, and Dante Spinotti’s cinematography is impressive and handsome. But "Public Enemies" could have been much more. This is not Mann’s "Bonnie and Clyde."

Public Enemies

(3 stars)

Starring: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup, Stephen Lang

Written by: Michael Mann, Ronan Bennett, Ann Biderman

Directed by: Michael Mann

Rated: R