Manfred ThamMovie Review: Black Mass
2015 hasn’t been a great year for Johnny Depp thus far. His role as the eponymous Mortdecai in Mortdecai was bland and despite reprising his trademark as the quirky character with Into The Wood’s Mr Wolf, we honestly can’t even remember him being in the film.
But with Black Mass, Depp is hopping into a ‘serious’ role, playing one of America’s most notorious mobsters: the Irish-American kingpin, Whitey Bulger. Thankfully, this ‘serious’ role isn’t a total flop like Depp’s in Transcendence but Black Mass has some issues that blacken its potential.
A completely unrecognizable Depp is ‘Jimmy’ Bulger, a small time crime lord of the Winter Hill gang in South Boston fighting to protect his turf from the encroaching presence of the Italian mafia. As his life and gang comes under threat from the mafia, Jimmy turns to John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) and the FBI.
John grew up with Jimmy in South Boston and after profanity filled negotiations, they form an alliance between the Winter Hill gang and the FBI to take down the Italian mafia, with Jimmy as an FBI informant. With the FBI essentially protecting him, Jimmy grows the Winter Hill gang till they rule all of Boston.
From the start, Black Mass is an unapologeticly gritty and violent movie showing the harsh reality of gang life. We’re immediately treated to a brutal beating by gang prospect, Kevin Weeks (Jesse Plemons), on the behest of Jimmy to get into the gang against a mobster who disrespected Jimmy so that everyone is clear on the tone of the film.
Depp’s portrayal of the violently fervent and ruthlessly pragmatic Winter Hill boss is eerily, almost frighteningly real; the fierce but unhinged intelligence easily depicted. His partner in crime, John, is equally well portrayed by Edgerton. The transparent raw ambition, greed and pride of the corrupt Connolly are extremely obvious as Connolly tries to get closer to his childhood ‘hero’, Jimmy Bulger.
The natural roguish charm of Depp still showed through despite the receding hairline and pallid complexion, and you can’t help but be bemused by Jimmy’s sardonic demeanour juxtaposed against his incandescent wrath.
Black Mass is plagued by an immense pacing problem though. Its compelling story of power struggles, boot-licking and racketeering is marred by the arduous pacing that drags all energetic highpoints into mediocre moments of mere intrigue.
The problem is further compounded by the storytelling’s flow. The whole plot is told through interviews with the upper echelons of the Winter Hill gang as part of their court pleas after they are brought down. At times, the switching of perspectives disrupts continuity and you’ll end up lost.
We also wished we saw more of Benedict Cumberbatch’s character: William ‘Billy’ Bulger, Jimmy’s brother and then, Massachusetts senator. His relationship with his older brother is only briefly glanced over and even then, we can discern incredible depth in the relationship between the 2 brothers on opposing sides of the law.
Black Mass proves that Johnny Depp, despite all his famous wacky roles which torpedoed his creative freedom, can still pull off real and memorable performance without needing a funny gait or outlandish makeup. A gritty and gripping tale, Black Mass will drag you screaming through the grime of gang life and leave you buried in a ditch. Now, if only we can figure out the title of the film.
[xrr rating=3/5 display_as=textstars label=”Our Rating:”]
Information:
Release Date: Sep 17
Runtime: 122 minutes
Language: English
Censorship Rating: M18
Genre: Crime, Action
Director: Scott Cooper
Main Actors: Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin Bacon