For the past few years people have not been too high on Johnny Depp. A lot of the roles he has been taking are all about playing over the top characters and a lot of people would just like to see him give a regular performance. Those same people want to see him return to doing regular roles like he did in Donnie Brasco (1997) and Blow (2001). I’m not exactly one of those people although I do understand where people are coming from. Once the trailers for Black Mass started coming out people got excited and felt maybe this movie would provide a return to form for Johnny Depp. I got pretty excited too although it was more because I thought the movie looked really good. Unfortunately I have to say that I was pretty let down by this movie.
Black Mass is about the life of criminal James “Whitey” Bulger (Johnny Depp). He was one of the most powerful gangsters in South Boston in the ’70s and ’80s. As a kid in South Boston he helped a kid named John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) from getting beat up by a bully and they became good friends. Years later John Connolly became an agent for the FBI. Connolly offers Whitey the chance to become an informant and form an alliance so that they can take out the mafia family that is cutting in on Whitey’s turf. Whitey agrees and with the protection of the FBI he became one of the most infamous crime lords in Boston history.
The thing to know before you go into this movie is that it is very character driven. I honestly can’t complain about any performance in this movie. This has one of the best all star casts I have seen in a while and every actor really brings it. Johnny Depp is haunting as Whitey Bulger. It is a very solid performance although this idea that people have that it is a return to form I don’t technically buy. Johnny Depp is a character actor and one of the only leading men in Hollywood who chooses to be. His role here as Whitey Bulger may not be over the top like Captain Jack Sparrow, but he still comes off as a very eccentric character and has a very thick South Boston accent.
As good as Depp is though I think Joel Edgerton comes very close to stealing his thunder. Edgerton plays a very corrupt but ambitious FBI agent. Coming off his written and directed feature debut with The Gift from earlier this year Edgerton is on a roll and his performance here is just another reason I admire his ability and talent. Rory Chochrane also gives a very deep performance as one of Bulger’s hitman Steve Flemmi. Chochrane is known mostly as a TV actor, but after this movie it would be cool to see him get better roles because I think he really nailed his character.
Although I enjoyed all the performances I also have to get to why this movie really let me down. The plot of this movie is almost non-existent. Sure there is somewhat of a semblance of a plot, but overall not much really happens. The movie centers on Bulger and Connolly’s alliance and it uses that in the plot although it never seems to go anywhere all that interesting. The movie for the most part just drags and comes off as very dry. There are some good scenes here and there all involving Depp’s character, but I don’t feel we ever get a truly great scene. The movie covers many years and jumps around and although other mob movies like Goodfellas (1990) has used the same formula this movie just doesn’t stand up to a movie like Goodfellas. Martin Scorsese shaped Goodfellas to flow a certain way that really works with interesting plot points throughout while Black Mass never really seems to flow much at all. One of the biggest things I was most disappointed by is how underused actor Jesse Plemons is as Bulger’s right hand enforcer Kevin Weeks. Plemons is a very good actor who gave a great performance in the TV show Breaking Bad and I’m just waiting for him to have one really great breakout performance in a big Oscar movie.
I can’t say that Black Mass is a bad movie although I can say that it was very disappointing and fell very flat when it came to the plot. Pretty much every good segment in the movie was shown in the trailer and I can’t help but think that was done on purpose. I usually expect that cheap marketing tactic from bad comedies and horror movies and not big dramas going for Oscars. I thought this movie looked like it could be great, but unfortunatley it doesn’t even come close to being as good as other similar modern movies such as The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) or American Hustle (2013). If it wasn’t for the great performances from the awesome cast Black Mass would almost have nothing worth your time.
Dave’s Rating- ★★★(3) out of ★★★★★(5)
