Director Scott Cooper rightfully tries to put the system on cinematic trial in “Black Mass,” a retelling of James “Whitey” Bulger and the Winter Hill Gang that terrorized Boston for decades.
So don’t be surprised when star Johnny Depp’s heavily made-up face as the cruel gangster isn’t the one you see the most. That’d be the fantastic Joel Edgerton as FBI agent and Bulger co-conspirator John Connolly.
But “Black Mass,” based on the book by Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill, isn’t the searing indictment of a failed system it could be. Even with the extensive screen time showing how far the FBI provided cover to Bulger’s misdeeds, viewers aren’t telegraphed the idea that this is the ugliest piece of this criminal puzzle. Nor does it spend any time whatsoever on the damage done to anyone outside of the mob or law enforcement.
Instead, the film seems to wrap itself up in exploring how loyalty and honor among brothers, by blood and upbringing, become strong enough to lead to disaster, yet not with the kind of ferocity necessary to convey all the collateral damage.
What keeps “Black Mass” watchable are the considerable performances, starting with Edgerton. He plays Connolly as a smooth operator as Bulger’s work as an informant against the Italian mob. He then expertly bumbles and becomes enraged as his old friend’s criminal enterprise becomes too big to protect.
For being the big name and face on the poster, Depp is predictably strong as Bulger — menacing and easy to displease yet still giving Whitey the gravitas of a community figure who is respected as much as he is feared.
The casting department seemingly did most of the work for Cooper in bringing on board excellent character actors for the rest of Bulger’s crew. Jesse Plemons does his best Matt Damon impression as Bulger strong-arm Kevin Weeks. Peter Sarsgaard steals a few scenes as the hot-tempered hitman Brian Halloran. Rory Cochrane and W. Earl Brown also stand out on the periphery, Cochrane with a resigned dedication to the Bulger crew as Steve Flemmi and Brown with a nihilistic hardiness as Johnny “The Executioner” Martorano.
Assuming you can make out the South Boston accents, these are solid performances that would have elevated “Black Mass” to the top echelon of gangster films if all the other components worked out.
But while Cooper understands how to show the violent world of Bulger, the rest of the film struggles. The personal losses in Bulger’s home life are displayed but without lending much more understanding to the man. Benedict Cumberbatch comes and goes from the story as Bulger’s brother, which is perplexing yet underscores just how connected Connolly and Bulger are — bonded only by history and their professional “alliance.”
To Cooper’s credit, the two-hour film is held together with jumps in time as Bulger’s associates are interrogated, one by one, to set up big jumps in the film’s timeline. The close-up camera work by cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi (“Silver Linings Playbook,” “Out of the Furnace”) in these interview scenes are some of the most visually interesting moments of the film.
Added together, there’s no moral ambiguity about these men as there was for some with, say, Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street.” But there’s a simpler one that comes across quite clearly: Crime does pay. But there’s little within “Black Mass” to convey how absolutely revolting that reality is beyond the various gangsters and prostitutes who wind up on the barrel end of the gun. You can sit in your seat, know that these are bad men (most of them still in jail or dead) and that the story is over. Walk away.
“Black Mass” is rated R. Running time: Two hours, two minutes. Three stars out of five.