The Public focuses on Stuart Goodson, played by Emilio Estevez, a Cincinnati librarian who has constantly found himself at odds with local public officials, most notably the district attorney Josh Davis, played by Christian Slater. One night, as a brutal cold front approaches the town, Goodson is left in a predicament when a group of homeless, led by Jackson - played by Michael K. Williams - refuse to leave the library with nowhere to go, in an Occupy-style movement. Things get ugly when the movement turns into a riot, in which a police negotiator, played by Alec Baldwin, is brought in, leaving Stuart and fellow librarian Myra, played by Jena Malone, in an awful predicament.
It’s certainly been a number of years since Emilio Estevez was last on the big screen, and his first film in nine years showcases that he has something to say. Made with the noblest of intentions, The Public - which he also wrote and directed - touches on a number of issues, in the wake of today’s changing political climate. With topics ranging from climate change, the disproportionate economy, and the treatment of the homeless, Estevez makes it clear that change needs to be made, and uses this film’s characters to show the effects of many relevant issues if they go on unaddressed for much longer.
And while his message is certainly made clear in this story, it’s clear that it was Estevez’s only intention. This film is very heavy-handed in the way it gets its message across, with much of the dialogue consisting of the noble protagonist - the not-so-subtly named Goodson - giving other characters a lesson in morality. The film opens up with him threatening to ban an older civilian from the library for her use of inappropriate language, while there are plenty of exchanges between him and both Baldwin’s negotiator and Slater’s district attorney about how wrong they are for wanting to shut the library down.
While these moments give the film a nice sense of social relevancy, the problem is there’s really nothing interesting about any of these characters beyond their views. Outside of Goodson, not much is really learned about nearly any of these other characters, outside of their views on the situation at hand. Most of them feel like stock characters. There’s Jeffrey Wright as the head librarian who wants to help the protagonist out but whose hands are tied. Taylor Schilling is the love interest who serves little purpose other than to just help spread the protagonist’s message. And Gabrielle Union is the local reporter who serves as the means for dishing out exposition whenever the film needs to keep things moving.
This cast is certainly talented, and nearly all of them clearly put in a lot of effort here, which is part of what at least makes this movie watchable. Probably one of the highlights is Slater, who gives a hammy, somewhat over-the-top performance as the slimy antagonist, that it’s difficult not to have at least a little bit of fun whenever he’s on screen. Michael K Williams is the film’s other big highlight, being the only one with any hint of subtlety in his performance, as he does express the pains of being tossed aside by society and being frowned upon for his economic situation. He serves as a great voice for this movie’s message.
It just would have been nice if the movie was more concerned with regularly showcasing these horrible effects so that there would be more nuance to all these characters, rather than making a speech about it every few minutes. And when the film isn’t making a speech, it dives into a fair amount of scenes that feel like something right out of the “O Captain, My Captain” scene from Dead Poets Society. There are plenty of moments where characters inside the library come together to chant or sing in unison, standing on desks while inspirational music plays in the background. While these moments are certainly meant to come off as inspirational and hopeful, they instead come off as cheesy, for the amount of times the film resorts to these scenes and for the amount of time dedicated each time one of these scenes occur.
The Public has a message, and it makes that message very clear, and it’s certainly difficult to at least not appreciate what it has to say. Unfortunately, while it makes plenty of good points, it’s really nothing more than a morality lesson, and isn’t supported by characters with any sort of depth to them. The ensemble cast are all enjoyable to watch, but the fact that most of their dialogue consists of sappy inspirational speeches just comes off as heavy-handed and too on-the-nose, rather than being the grand cinematic achievement it thought it would be. It’s a mostly harmless movie that may not be bad to watch once, but certainly isn’t worth revisiting beyond that.
Recommendation: Proceed With Caution
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