By Marc S. Sanders
Black Mass tells the story of an FBI agent, and his two childhood friends who are brothers. One brother is Billy Bulger, a Massachusetts state senator. The other is notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger. The script has a lot of elements to make for a great crime drama, but I wonder what Johnny Depp is doing here made up to perform like a crazed ghoul.
The FBI agent is John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) who turns to Whitey (Depp), a fearful leader of the Irish mob in South Boston during the nineteen seventies through eighties to work as an informant, providing intel on the competing Italian Mafia. It’s no secret about Whitey Bulger’s dealings or what territory he covers. Agent Connolly does his best to protect his friend, so long as he collects pertinent information that leads to arrests. However, what’s the limit to Bulger’s activities, and how does this reflect on a public figure like Whitey’s politician brother, Billy (Benedict Cumberbatch)?
Much of Black Mass reenacts recorded testimonies after everything has shaken out. Guys who survived Whitey’s violent crew (Jesse Plemmons, Rory Cochrane) offer information on the gangster’s activities and what he compelled his captains to carry out. Mixed in with these voiceovers are how Connolly responds to the progress of his operations. Time and again, his superiors (first played by Kevin Bacon and later by Corey Stoll) question Connolly about how beneficial Bulger can be if the crook always has his finger on the trigger, killing those that might rat him out. Black Mass is told from an assortment of different perspectives and sometimes that muddies the water.
The most interesting storyline is how Connolly uses and protects his criminal friend, while also stepping away from getting blood on his hands. Joel Edgerton gives the best performance of the film as an FBI guy who turns a blind eye to Whitey’s crimes. Connolly thinks he can continue his own corruption while Whitey cooperates and leads him to big, heroic indictments of the Italian mob. As long as the arrangement upholds, the corrupt agent will always have an answer for his actions and stay ahead of the ethical lines he knows he’s crossing. More importantly, even if his wife protests, Connolly is getting prestigious promotions and collecting substantial paychecks for his progress. Scott Cooper directs Edgerton with conflicts of overwhelming complications.
One problem is that Whitey Bulger is a loose cannon who is never intimidated, not even by the Feds, especially not by his childhood friend. His brother Billy looks away to maintain a clean political image. Therefore, it is quite easy for Whitey to gun down a rat associate in broad daylight in the middle of a wide-open parking lot, shotgun and all. The killer doesn’t even need to run away from the scene of the crime. This is Whitey Bulger.
Johnny Depp is great in the role, but does his portrayal belong in this film? Depp’s career is widely celebrated for the quirky, makeup clad parts he plays such as Jack Sparrow and Edward Scissorhands. Even Ed Wood is delightfully weird. In Black Mass, the actor dons steel grey eye contacts, white slicked back hair making him appear almost bald, and skeletal teeth beneath a near albino complexion. He looks like Skeletor without the hood. Throw in a brooding, deep Bostonian accent and you have the ghoul I referred to earlier. Is this Whitey Bulger? Online photos of the real guy do not seem consistent with the film’s appearance. Depp’s delivery of dialogue and even his wicked Freddy Krueger laugh seem too far beyond the realm of this crime drama. The actor is working on another plane than everyone else in the cast who wear hairpieces, three-piece cotton suits and cheesy off-the-rack polyesters and denims to populate this time period from forty years ago.
A scene showing Bulger dining on steaks with Connolly and his FBI partner (David Harbor) was famously used in preview showings ahead of the film’s release. Take this scene out of context like the trailer did and Depp looks scary good as he terrifies Harbor for doing something as simple as revealing a long-time secret family recipe. Afterwards, Whitey goes upstairs to harass Connolly’s wife (Julianne Nicholson) at the bedroom door. The dinner scene sold me on getting a ticket for the movie as soon as it was released. However, put it back into the framework of the script and I feel like Black Mass is diverting itself from a complex crime drama to a vampire in a Member’s Only jacket. As good as Depp is with his makeup and his vocal inflections and pace, it just doesn’t seem to belong in this particular film. Marlon Brando as Don Corleone with the shoe polish in the hair and the cotton in the mouth? That works. Johnny Depp as Count Dracula in Sergio Valente skinny jeans is not as effective.
Because the script changes hands from one perspective to another and then another, I found the reenactments of Connolly and Bulger’s reign of crimes to be a little inconsistent. I found much potential for Benedict Cumberbatch’s purpose as Whitey’s brother, but there is too much diverted away from that character because the picture is trafficked with what everyone else is doing and seeing on top of giving Johnny Depp a lot of scenery to chew.
Black Mass pursued the potential for a very interesting gangster picture like Goodfellas or Donnie Brasco, but it wants to capitalize too much on the latest Johnny Depp routine. I think James “Whitey” Bulger is an interesting twentieth century bad guy with a violently daring and checkered background. He had associates within his family and gang to color in a movie that’ll grab you. The tainted lawmen who were involved are also intriguing. Scott Cooper and the screenwriters knew this, but often they opt to go in different directions.
Now that a loose interpretation of Bulger has been played by Jack Nicholson in Martin Scorsese’s Oscar winning The Departed and again here, it’s time to tell the cold-blooded killer’s story once more. Just go simpler without all the clownish theatrics.
2 UNPAID MOVIE CRITICS!!!! 