I wish I could have posted when people were talking more.
I saw this last week and I thought it was good. Not great, but above average. I'd say an 8/10 or a B.
But there was something missing. What the film has going for it is a great cast. Depp and Bale were perfectly cast and play their parts to perfection, they are so good I see people say they were bad. They were doing what Mann loves most from his actors, becoming their roles to the point where they don't have to overly emote to let the audience see the mechanics of the craft. They are character actors just being.
The thing is Mann went for a very minimalist approach as he does in all his films. I respect that and it worked here. But I felt the movie needed a little more huzzah and style. The first half hour is written to be a big-bang opening, but despite some beautiful and artistic cinematography it is shot far too close to the actors imo (most especially during the jail break and car driving away) and is edited at a leisurely pace. I feel that once the story really gets going after Purvis reaches Chicago the movie runs along fine and several scenes, the Little Bohemia shootout most particularly, are brilliant.
But I feel Mann's minimalist style misses opportunities, like building suspense in how Dillinger was first caught in the hotel (we see the fire alarm, the police coming, build, etc.) or Dillinger's clever plans to rob banks. I am not one for historical fedility to the point of harming the picture. I am completely fine with changing the places and time where Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd died. But I feel there are great chestnuts in history, like Dillinger scouting out the banks in advance by pretending to be a salesman, or better when he pretended to be a filmmaker scouting a location. Things like this I could not see someone like Scorsese passing up. But Mann just wants the basic details for story and let the great wealth of acting, camera movements, set design, etc. tell the rest. That is fine but the story is a little barer than it should have I felt.
But I do not want to just criticize, because I honestly really liked this movie and would love to see it again. Going back to the acting, it was superb. The real stand outs being Marion Collitard who made the most human and likable character in the film and Billy Crudup who deliciously stole the show as a terrific J. Edgar Hoover. Every scene Collitard is in the story lifts. The symbiotic relationship she and Depp's Dillinger form is believable and somehow sweet, despite his sinisterness.
I feel the best scene in the movie is when she is getting tortured. It was nice because it allows one of the few moments for us to get into Purvis's head (who as usual per a Mann film has a lot going on, but we have to work to figure out what) when he lifts her and wee see the doubt in his eyes...the inevitability that he will quit and this job is knawing at him. The disillusionment of Hoover's "vision."
But it works because Marion really makes us believe it and empathize with her. The final scene and the recurrence of Krall's haunting rendition of "Bye, Bye Blackbird," could have been really cheesy but comes off sad and believable.
And while the story may not be the most faithful to history, the attention to detail is astonishing. Mann is the first director to make a movie and show that digital can work as a true medium to make a big budget film with, as opposed to an experiment (Sin City) or a crappy self-indulgent effects puff piece (the Star Wars prequels).
It is ust so fresh and raw and does not detract from Chicago in the 1930s, but brings the cold bitterness of a winter night outside the jazz club to life with vivid detail in the hands of a technical master. Scenes like Dillinger's escape from prison are tense and great, but seeing him go to jail and the reaction of Deppresion-era small town citizens is hypnotic and more telling than anything, without having to say a word.
I do not mind the minimalist form of development. In a Mann movie actions speak louder than words and if you pay close attention you'll get a lot out of Dillinger and Purvis, as well as Billy and Hoover (the rest, not so much). But when you are watching a gangster picture in that era, you might want a bit of the operatic or at least slick fun. We see Dillinger have fun, but Mann never lets loose. In some ways I wish Scorsese had made this, but at the same time I'm glad we got a nuanced Depp as Dillinger and not an overacting DiCaprio. Still there was just something missing that held this movie back.
I still liked it and will gladly see it again.
(Ouch) BUt that whole scene was terrific. And Nelson was just a lunatic 
The scene where Purvis comes into his apartment and he's sitting at the table with one hand underneath had me making fists with my toes haha.
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