Review: Black Mass

Based on a book by Dick Lehr & Gerard O’Neill, and set in 1970’s South Boston, the film concerns a collaboration between FBI agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) and his childhood friend turned Irish-American mobster James ‘Whitey’ Bulger (Johnny Depp), to take out the Italian mob. At first Whitey is aggressively against the idea of ‘snitching’, but when he cottons onto the business opportunity it presents (i.e. removing the competition), he goes along with it. So while the rather naïve Connolly promises no FBI interference with Whitey’s exploits so long as Whitey provides intel on the Italians, the gangster is pretty much allowed to run riot. Dakota Johnson turns up as Whitey’s girlfriend and the mother of his son, Kevin Bacon and Corey Stoll play Connolly’s superior and an upright DA respectively, Rory Cochrane and Jesse Plemons play members of Whitey’s crew, Benedict Cumberbatch is Whitey’s state senator brother Billy, Peter Sarsgaard plays an idiot cokehead associate of Whitey’s, and Bill Camp turns up briefly as another shonky associate, John Callahan.

 

Proof that not every real-life criminal deserves to have their story told in cinema, this 2015 crime flick from director Scott Cooper (the not-bad but overrated “Crazy Heart” and the uneven “Out of the Furnace”) and screenwriters Mark Mallouk (a debutant) and Jez Butterworth (“The Last Legion”, “Edge of Tomorrow”) doesn’t bring anything new to the party aside from ridiculous makeup. True or not, the story is just too familiar to keep one truly engrossed. If you’ve seen “Donnie Brasco” and the like, there’s nothing especially new or surprising in this, and at times it’s actually quite dull.

 

Although not subtle, Johnny Depp’s performance isn’t bad, though Whitey’s unpredictability becomes predictable after a while, which is a shame. The real issue is with the makeup. I’m assuming it was more Depp’s idea than Cooper’s but whoever green-lit it, is a fucking moron. In addition to not looking anything like the real guy, Depp looks absolutely ridiculous, something of a bizarre combination of Jack Nicholson, Dan Duryea, John Malkovich, Yul Brynner, and Max Schreck in “Nosferatu”. Seriously, he looks like an albino vampire. It’s needlessly ghoulish and silly, and torpedoes Depp’s otherwise fine performance, and to an extent the film itself. The blue contact lenses are particularly unconvincing.

 

On the plus side, Joel Edgerton has his best role since “Warrior”, and does rock-solid work. I was very pleasantly surprised as well by Dakota Johnson, who after the debacle of “Fifty Shades of Grey” shows here that she actually can act. She’s terrific. Although he’s not convincing as Depp’s brother and his American accent is only passable, Benedict Cumberbatch is also solid. I would’ve liked to have had more scenes with Kevin Bacon and an hilariously shifty Peter Sarsgaard, the latter of whom makes an immediate, nervy impression (I swear Corey Stoll and Peter Sarsgaard are from the same family tree. Anyone else seeing the resemblance?). An impressive Jesse Plemons and the ubiquitous Bill Camp also solidify that acting is most certainly not this film’s problem.

 

You’ve seen it before, you’ve seen it better, no need to see it here. The performances are all fine, but Depp’s makeup is appallingly unconvincing and the story only holds intermittent interest. This one’s just OK at best and extremely disappointing.

 

Rating: C+