At The Movies

I have seen two movies in the past week and enjoyed them both.

THE PROPOSAL. It's fluff. It aims low but it hits its mark. It's fun to watch the Sandra Bullock character evolve, and Ryan Reynolds is a cutie. The supporting cast is full of highly capable pros (including Betty White). There isn't a single plot twist we don't see coming from a million miles away, but that's OK. Anticipating the romance is half the fun.

PUBLIC ENEMIES. I enjoyed it enormously. Johnny Depp inhabits the character of Dillinger, and he looks very, very good as he does it. It's less successful than The Proposal because it tries to do soooo much more. It's about Dillinger's relationship with his beautiful "black bird," Billie. It's about Dillinger going mano a mano against Melvin Purvis. It's about Purvis making peace with his role in J. Edgar Hoover's FBI. It's about Dillinger finding his place in a criminal world run more and more by organized crime ... Unfortunately, none of those stories is very well fleshed out. So while I appreciated how well made it is, and was intrigued by the stories, I wish it had tried to do less and achieved its goals (like The Proposal does).