It's a story that was begging to be filmed. James "Whitey" Bulger gains control of organized crime in South Boston and, with the help of corrupt law enforcement officials, expands his criminal empire to include the whole city. He gets rich through racketeering, extortion and drug trafficking and enforces his will through violence. Meanwhile, his younger brother is a rising star in Massachusetts politics and becomes President of the State Senate. When Whitey learns that law enforcement is closing in on him, he disappears. Bulger rises to number two on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list (behind only Osama Bin Laden) but remains a fugitive for 16 years until he's arrested. Yes, It's a story tailor-made for Hollywood. Unfortunately, the Hollywood treatment is exactly what Bulger's story gets in "Black Mass" (R, 2:02).
Johnny Depp stars as Whitey Bulger and the film focuses on the middle portion of his life, his rise and fall as a Boston crime boss. In the mid-1970s, Bulger was on the rise but his criminal activities were confined to the South Boston neighborhood where he grew up. When his childhood friend, FBI agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton), suggests an alliance that can help both of their careers, Bulger agrees. Whitey will supply information about his rivals in the Italian mafia, while the FBI uses that information to bring down the Italians, but ignores Bulger. That arrangement does benefit both parties. The local FBI cripples the Patriarca crime family and Connolly gets promoted. Bulger becomes the undisputed crime lord of Boston and ignores the FBI's demands that he refrain from committing serious crimes. As Bulger's criminal activities increase, the FBI realizes they're in too deep with Whitey to even try stopping him.
There are many problems with this movie, starting with the casting. In a film whose main characters are male, the female cast members do most of the best work. Dakota Johnson (as Whitey's long-time girlfriend) and Julianne Nicholson (as John Connolly's wife) give especially strong performances. Among the males, Edgerton, and Corey Stoll (as Connolly's supervisor) do their usual exceptional work, while the actors playing Bulger's cohorts (Rory Cochrane, W. Earl Brown, Jesse Plemons and Peter Sarsgaard) are no more than serviceable, and consistently outstanding actors like Kevin Bacon (as the director of the FBI's Boston filed office), Adam Scott (as an FBI agent) and Benedict Cumberbatch (as Whitey's politician brother) are simply miscast. The same can be said for Johnny Depp. He gives a convincing performance, but the make-up used on him is distracting and it feels like a lot of time and effort went into making Depp look, sound and act like Ray Liotta in "Goodfellas" and that's not the only distracting part of this movie – or the only connection with "Goodfellas". As in that 1990 classic, gangsters are depicted as respected in their neighborhoods/families and there are scenes in which people are talked to very calmly right before they're killed (including one such scene in an otherwise empty room) and there's even a scene in which a dangerous criminal frightens someone by threatening him as a joke, a la Joe Pesci's character in Martin Scorsese's film. The original aspects of this film's characterization of gangsters aren't very compelling either. The opening scene, designed to show Whitey's menacing personality, has him complaining about one of his friends licking his fingers and putting them back in a bowl of bar nuts. Seriously? Is this a gangster movie or an episode of "Seinfeld"? Worst of all is the script's liberal use of dramatic license. Several of the movie's characters, plot points, and major facts are different from what happened and how it happened, while other important details are left out. It's unnecessary and counterproductive to change so much of a true story that so many people know so well. It also would have been nice if the script related the movie's title to the story in some way, shape or form. This movie is based on a fascinating and many-faceted true story and, overall, the film tells a fairly interesting tale, but the devil is in the details and this version of the story of the FBI's deal with Boston's devil is disappointing. "C-"
Johnny Depp stars as Whitey Bulger and the film focuses on the middle portion of his life, his rise and fall as a Boston crime boss. In the mid-1970s, Bulger was on the rise but his criminal activities were confined to the South Boston neighborhood where he grew up. When his childhood friend, FBI agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton), suggests an alliance that can help both of their careers, Bulger agrees. Whitey will supply information about his rivals in the Italian mafia, while the FBI uses that information to bring down the Italians, but ignores Bulger. That arrangement does benefit both parties. The local FBI cripples the Patriarca crime family and Connolly gets promoted. Bulger becomes the undisputed crime lord of Boston and ignores the FBI's demands that he refrain from committing serious crimes. As Bulger's criminal activities increase, the FBI realizes they're in too deep with Whitey to even try stopping him.
There are many problems with this movie, starting with the casting. In a film whose main characters are male, the female cast members do most of the best work. Dakota Johnson (as Whitey's long-time girlfriend) and Julianne Nicholson (as John Connolly's wife) give especially strong performances. Among the males, Edgerton, and Corey Stoll (as Connolly's supervisor) do their usual exceptional work, while the actors playing Bulger's cohorts (Rory Cochrane, W. Earl Brown, Jesse Plemons and Peter Sarsgaard) are no more than serviceable, and consistently outstanding actors like Kevin Bacon (as the director of the FBI's Boston filed office), Adam Scott (as an FBI agent) and Benedict Cumberbatch (as Whitey's politician brother) are simply miscast. The same can be said for Johnny Depp. He gives a convincing performance, but the make-up used on him is distracting and it feels like a lot of time and effort went into making Depp look, sound and act like Ray Liotta in "Goodfellas" and that's not the only distracting part of this movie – or the only connection with "Goodfellas". As in that 1990 classic, gangsters are depicted as respected in their neighborhoods/families and there are scenes in which people are talked to very calmly right before they're killed (including one such scene in an otherwise empty room) and there's even a scene in which a dangerous criminal frightens someone by threatening him as a joke, a la Joe Pesci's character in Martin Scorsese's film. The original aspects of this film's characterization of gangsters aren't very compelling either. The opening scene, designed to show Whitey's menacing personality, has him complaining about one of his friends licking his fingers and putting them back in a bowl of bar nuts. Seriously? Is this a gangster movie or an episode of "Seinfeld"? Worst of all is the script's liberal use of dramatic license. Several of the movie's characters, plot points, and major facts are different from what happened and how it happened, while other important details are left out. It's unnecessary and counterproductive to change so much of a true story that so many people know so well. It also would have been nice if the script related the movie's title to the story in some way, shape or form. This movie is based on a fascinating and many-faceted true story and, overall, the film tells a fairly interesting tale, but the devil is in the details and this version of the story of the FBI's deal with Boston's devil is disappointing. "C-"