Jay Reviews Scott Cooper's "Black Mass"

Jay here.

I first heard about James "Whitey" Bulger not long after I moved to Boston in the summer of 1998. He was a mythic figure to the natives of the city and I was instantly intrigued by the stories about his notorious reign as one of the most feared crime lords in not only the northeast but in the entire country. By the time I moved into a small apartment on Park Dr. in the Fens, Bulger had already been missing and on the FBI's Most Wanted list for several years. The common consensus was that he was probably on the other side of the world by now and he would never been seen again.

The story of his rise from small-time South Boston hood into the leader of the infamous Winter Hill Gang is brilliantly documented in Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neil's book, Black Mass: Whitey Bulger, the FBI and a Devil's Deal.  It chronicles his "unholy" alliance with the FBI as a confidential informant. Bulger would supply the government critical info on the operations of his chief rivals, the Italian Mafia in the city's North End, while his handlers turned a blind eye to his dealings. The main FBI investigator who would architect the deal with Whitey was John Connolly, a childhood friend of his younger brother, Billy. Connelly idolized the mobster and offered to "look the other way" if Bulger would inform on the Italians and help his career in the Bureau. It worked for over a decade as the Winter Hill Gang rose to prominence in Boston and Connolly was promoted through the ranks.

I got to see Scott Cooper's (Crazy Heart, Out of the Furnace) film adaptation of Lehr and O'Neil's book, Black Mass, and overall I would call it a mixed bag. An ok crime thriller, yes, but not able to stand alongside some of the great movies of the genre (Goodfellas, Casino, The Godfather Part 1 & 2 and Scarface), Cooper's film  feels often like it doesn't know if it wants to be a realistic account of Bulger's crimes and the men who helped him rise to power or an over-the-top caricature of an almost mythic figure.

Johnny Depp as notorious Boston mobster, James "Whitey" Bulger.

I know this might be an unpopular opinion, but the first and biggest mistake Cooper made was casting Johnny Depp as the main character. Don't get me wrong, I think Depp is a great actor. I think he makes questionable choices sometimes in an effort to expand his reputation as character actor, but he is a talented performer who has given us several truly great performances (Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Dead Man come to mind). His work as James Bulger here isn't necessarily bad. Unfortunately it is distorted by the effort to make him look just like the man by covering him with make-up, covering his head with a white receding hairline and giving him a highly distracting and somewhat disturbing pair of blue contact lenses.

The effect heightens Depp's performance to an absurd level that only serves to distract every time he is in a scene. He's creepy and I don't mean creepy in any realistic, scary gangster way. The best way I can describe it is to ask you to image a bunch of bad men standing around, ready to do bad things and all of the sudden their leader walks up and he's Hannibal Lecter. It felt a bit like Bela Lugosi was risen from the dead to play Bulger and he's still doing his best Dracula but with a Boston accent. I now he's getting lots of love for the supposed resurrection of a more subdued performance, but there was nothing toned down to it.

It's a shame too, because there are a lot of people doing solid work in supporting roles around Depp. Rory Cochrane (Dazed and Confused, Love a .45) is fantastic as Bulger's right-hand-man, Steve Flemmi. Jesse Plemons (Creepy Todd in Breaking Bad) is also compelling as Bulger muscle, Kevin Weeks. There is also some really strong performances from women in Black Mass. Dakota Johnson, as Bulger's "Baby Mama" and Julianne Nicholson as Connolly's wife, Marianne. Unfortunately, Cooper's film places the women in very limited roles as this is a man's world of violence and corruption and they represent collateral damage.

Bulger is behind the wheel  with his most trusted partner, Steve Flemmi (Rory Cochrane).

Joel Edgerton does as much as he can playing John Connolly, the corrupt FBI agent who protected Whitey for years. But his story suffers too because this is a film that can't seem to decide if it wants to be about him or Bulger. Edgerton has just as much screen time as Depp and the narrative suffers from it. There's not enough time to do a deep dive into what drove these two men and the movie wants to accomplish that with a limited amount of time. The result is uneven and leaves us with a picture that doesn't have a real identity and is hampered by Depp's distracting look.

If you really want to watch a compelling film on the crimes of Whitey Bulger and his alliance with the FBI check out Joe Berlinger's documentary, Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger. It's streaming on Netflix. Wait to watch Black Mass when it's on TV.