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filmREVIEW: 'Black Mass': Bold biopic of Boston crime lord
Scott Cooperâs Black Mass is a bold gangster saga that provides Johnny Depp with a grand stage for his extraordinary comeback
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Scott Cooper's Black Mass is a bold gangster saga that provides Johnny Depp with a grand stage for his extraordinary comeback.
Depp's deep portrayal of James 'Whitey' Bulger is perhaps the best performance of his career, leaving behind his previous bizarre, comical roles and producing a dead-pan, steely-eyed portrayal of Boston's most notorious criminal.
Based on the book by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill, the film opens with statements by Bulger's former confidants during interrogation after they were arrested.
It then follows the stranger-than-fiction story as Bulger develops a relationship with his childhood friend John Connolly (Joel Edgerton), who is now a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent with a mission to make Boston a crime-free city. What is also interesting is that Bulger's brother, Billy Bulger (Benedict Cumberbatch), a popular member of the Massachusetts State Senate.
Connolly persuades the bureau to turn Bulger into their informant to bring down the Italian mafia in the northern part of the city.
The deal makes Bulger even more powerful than before, allowing him to do anything, supposedly except killing or selling drugs, in return for his cooperation.
The film shifts between Bulger, conducting his business, which mostly involves body-smashing and brain-smacking scenes, and Connolly as he tries to convince his superiors about the real value of Bulger as their informant.
FBI chief Charles McGuire (Kevin Bacon) grows impatient, as Bulger provides them with little valuable information on the Italian mob, and gives Connolly a deadline of two weeks before terminating the deal.
Feeling threatened, Connolly pushes Bulger to immediately give what the bureau wants--access to bug the mafia's headquarters.
Meanwhile Connolly and his partner, John Morris (David Harbour), learn that Bulger has been involved in a murder in Florida to secure his business there.
Morris is torn between staying true to his job as a law enforcer by reporting the finding to his boss or pretending he knows nothing as instructed by Connolly.
Things get nastier as the bureau learns of Bulger's involvement in the Florida killing from a witness who is a criminal suspect. Connolly refuses to provide the suspect with witness protection and instead releases him.
Just as happens in the usual gangster movie, the witness soon finds his way to an early grave as Bulger himself guns him down on the street.
Bulger manages to evade prosecution as the feds finally find solid proof that can put the Italian mafia in jail.
The brotherhood between Bulger and Connolly gets stronger as a new agent with an excellent track record in solving crime joins the bureau and starts sensing that something is not right with Bulger roaming around the city with no real attempts to take him down.
Depp and Edgerton have equal portions of the film, but Depp holds all the credit for the film's most memorable scenes ' the heart-stopping conversation over family recipes during dinner with Connolly and Morris, the confrontation with Connolly' wife Marianne (Julianne Nicholson) ' that confirm his menacing side, quite apart from his ruthless killings.
However, the film fails to engage the audience with his personal issues, as many of the personal narratives are often cut short.
Bulger's relationship with his son is barely touched on, although in one memorable scene they have an unusual conversation while beating some unfortunate on top of the dining table; equally his connection with his wife (Dakota Johnson) quickly ends after the sudden death of their son.
Whitey and Billy Bulger are portrayed as distant but loving brothers, but Cooper fails to dig deeper into their relationship, as there should have been some interesting and extraordinary brotherhood stories surrounding the pair.
Filled with violence, bad language and tales of loyalty and betrayal, Black Mass is your typical gangster flick.
But Cooper has done a great job in highlighting the movie as a picture that showcases the correlation between thriving crime in society and corrupt law enforcers. Black Mass deserves four out of five stars.
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Black Mass (Warner Bros. Pictures; 122 minutes)
Director: Scott Cooper
Screenwriters: Jez Butterworth, Mark Mallouk
Cast: Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin Bacon, Jesse Plemons, Corey Stoll
