July 3, 2009 - The Austin Chronicle

filmlistingsnewreviewsICE AGE: DAWN OF THEDINOSAURS D: Carlos Saldanha; with the voicesof Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Simon Pegg,Queen Latifah, Seann William Scott, Josh Peck. (PG, 93 min.)Not reviewed at press time. So a mammoth,a sloth, and a saber-toothed tiger walkinto a Mesozoic Age … – Kimberley JonesAlamo Drafthouse Lake Creek, Alamo DrafthouseVillage, Barton Creek Square, CM Cedar Park,Hill Country Galleria, CM Round Rock, SouthparkMeadows, Highland, Gateway, Lakeline,Metropolitan, Tinseltown North, WestgateD: Michael Mann; with Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, ChanningPublic Enemies Tatum, Giovanni Ribisi, Emilie de Ravin, Stephen Dorff, Billy Crudup. (R, 143 min.)When photos circulated last week on the web of Johnny Depp in full dress and make-up as theMad Hatter in Tim Burton’s forthcoming Alice in Wonderland, one could hardly suppress a yawn.68 T H E A U S T I N C H R O N I C L E JULY 3, 2009 a u s t i n c h r o n i c l e . c o mAny other major Hollywood star in white pancake,green-tinted contacts, and Bozo theClown-like red mange, there might have beena stir, but we expect this sort of thing fromDepp. He seems almost perversely drawn tooutsized, heavily lacquered characters: thedemon barber, the pirate swish, that sadeyedtopiary stylist. Sure, Depp knows howto act on a human scale – he’s never beenmore thoughtful or convincing than in LasseHallström’s What’s Eating Gilbert Grape – butit doesn’t always feel like comfortable groundfor him. Where he is rock-solid here is incapturing the innate charisma and confidenceof John Dillinger, one of the title’s publicenemies – the famed bank robbers, commonhoods, and Robin Hoods of the ProhibitionEra who enjoyed rat-a-tat nicknames andthe fascination, even hero worship, of aDepression-rocked nation. When “Pretty Boy”Floyd is gunned down in the film’s opening,he renounces the shorthand and reclaims hisbirth name as he burbles up blood; lyricallyshot and performed, the scene foreshadowsa thematic tension between the public andprivate persona, as well as a dozen moredeaths to come, many at the same hand (or isit trigger finger?) as Floyd’s – J. Edgar Hoover’srising star and yes-man, Melvin Purvis, playedby Bale with the same ramrod cheerlessnessthat’s dogged his Aughties work (somebodyhire this guy to do a romantic comedy-ascleanse,please). Purvis tightens his focus,as does the film, to his public enemy No. 1,John Dillinger. Fans of Mann’s masterful Heatmight have hoped for another cat-and-mousegame, but the story (by Mann, Ann Biderman,and Ronan Bennett, adapted from BryanBurrough’s nonfiction book) is too blocky forsustained dramatic tension, and Bale, as withother seemingly essential supporting players,drops in and out of the action erratically. Thetitle’s pluralization aside, this is Dillinger’sshow, and Depp’s, and the actor does somecheeky, exhilarating work when he is all cockinessand resolve, as with the first on-cameraheist, brilliantly scored to bluesman OtisTaylor’s kicky “Ten Million Slaves” (though itshould be said that the film’s sound mix awkwardlyforegrounds music and artillery, givingshort shrift to dialogue) and later in a bravurasequence that charts a captured Dillinger’snighttime transfer to an Indiana jail, then toa holding pen, which he shanghais for animpromptu press conference, and ends in ajailbreak that is simply and thrillingly rendered.Mann doesn’t consistently plot the action socleanly; a DV convert, the director sometimessacrifices spatial awareness for a you-are-herenearness and lurch. (One scene using handheldcamerawork has the up-and-down hum ofa moving passenger car.) The DV format alsoallows Mann to digitally tweak Public Enemies’color composition to stunning effect – moodygrays, blinding bursts of an old-time cameraflash, a diseased-looking, late-afternoon yellowat a Miami horse track. Mann doesn’t manipulatecolor just to stylistically wank off: Thebeautiful but sickly off-shade of sunlightwaning has everything to do with the emotionalkey of the scene, in which Dillingertries to assure his girlfriend that, well, he’sgoing to live forever. It’s a crucial moment inthe film’s trajectory, but Depp doesn’t sellit; the emotional depth and heft it requirescome off tinny and inauthentic. Which is ashame, because Depp has a marvelous foilin Marion Cotillard, a French actress whowon an Oscar for her high-wire portrayal ofEdith Piaf in La Vie en Rose. As Dillinger’sgirlfriend Billie Frechette – a former reskid,now coat-check girl – Cotillard doesn’tlook part Native American or sound like aThirties Chicago moll, but damned if sheisn’t a sight and sound to behold. Whateverher technical limitations, she rises abovethem to breathe a flesh and blood andbattered-woman verisimilitude into thepart. You can’t tear your eyes off her, anymore than you can Mann’s flawed but stillengrossing picture. – Kimberley Jones★★★★■Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek, AlamoDrafthouse South, Barton Creek Square, CMCedar Park, Hill Country Galleria, CM Round Rock,Southpark Meadows, Highland, Gateway, Lakeline,Metropolitan, Tinseltown North, WestgateKAMBAKKHT ISHQ D: Sabir Khan;Not reviewed at press time. ThisHollywood-set battle of the sexes starsBollywood stars Kumar and Kapoor as awith Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Kiron Kher, AftabShivdasani. (NR, 154 min., subtitled)stuntman and a supermodel who clash,then find their chemistry. SylvesterStallone, Denise Richards, and BrandonRouth cameo.Tinseltown South– Kimberley JonesMANAGEMENT D: Stephen Belber; withJennifer Aniston, Steve Zahn, Margo Martindale, FredWard, Woody Harrelson, James Hiroyuki Liao, Mark BooneJunior. (R, 94 min.)In Management, Belber’s debut as a filmdirector (with a screenplay he also wrote),the playwright creates some interestingcharacters only to let them wallow inertlywithin an uninteresting and predictable plot.Belber’s stage credits include Match, TheLaramie Project, and Tape (he adapted hisown script for Richard Linklater’s 2001 filmof the same name). Aniston is cast as Sue,a more upscale variation on her emotionallystunted Good Girl character. Sue is a travelingsaleswoman, whose product is the bland,corporate art that’s hung in identical hotelrooms across the country. On a stopoverin Kingman, Ariz., lonely motel clerk Mike(Zahn) takes notice of her and seizes theopportunity to dust off an old bottle of wine,knock on her door, and present it to Sue –“courtesy of management.” It’s totally awkwardand inappropriate, but before you knowit, a permitted touch leads to a roll in thehay (though this traveling saleswoman takesMike, the motel owners’ son, in the laundryroom instead of the barn), and Mike is cashingin his savings on a one-way ticket toMaryland to be with the girl of his dreams.After this trip, from which she sends himpacking, Mike again stalks her to Aberdeen,Wash., where she has reunited with herformer boyfriend (Harrelson), a retired punkrocker-turned-yogurt mogul. Sue wants tomake an impact on the world, and she cannow head up her boyfriend’s nonprofit yogurtsubsidiary. Harrelson lends some neededcomic spark to Management, as does Liao,but it’s too little too late. There is not muchthat is believable in the unfolding of thisromantic comedy. We constantly wonder whySue never calls 911 (or, at the very least,creates more boundaries) between herselfand her stalker. We furthermore wonder whatshe can possibly see in this underachieving