A large part of the success of this film relies on the performances of its three leads, comprised of academy award winners Marion Cotillard and Christian Bale, and academy award nominee Johnny Depp. These three leads manage to provide not only stellar performances, and show us tough depression era persona's, but they also manage to show us the humanity behind these people, yet don't portray these characters in an apologetic way. Most of the brunt of this work lies on Depp, whose performance as bank robber John Dilliger, doesnt take any of the grit and violence out of the role, yet infuses it with what can only be described as humanity. Cotillard also has this job, and her lastering of the accent alone warranted an academy award now in ly opinion (seriously how is it possible that out of this and her performance in Nine she failed to garner a nomination at the Academy Awards?) Cotillard has a difficult task, as she has to play a woman who is torn between being a good person, and her love for a gangster. Finally Bale has the tough task of playing a cop who actually seems like a person!
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The film is also a film without a hero, we are instead given a series of anti-heroes, and despite the fact that Bale plays the law enforcement, throughout most of the film he feels like a villain, due to our emotional attachment with Dillinger. I will round out this post by saying that I simply do not understand this films lackluster response, this film is a visually thrilling fun quotable romp, with strong performances from its lead actors. Rating A-
Bye-bye, blackbird.
Your right about it being underrated, brilliant movie, is at like 70% on rotten toms
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