Director Scott Cooper resurrects the gritty, rain-washed palette of Out Of The Furnace for Black Mass, a bleak drama about James ‘Whitey’ Bulger, the crime lord who ruled the Boston underworld for over two decades. Johnny Depp stars as Bulger, in a role that finally prioritises talent over ticks, and reminds us of the genius he’s been hiding under silly hats during his overlong tutelage under Tim Burton.
Depp’s Bulger is chilling; his receding hairline, sickly complexion, paunch and ice-blue eyes rendering him almost unrecognisable, but his appearance signifies much more than a desire for yet another costume. Evoking the Uncanny Valley, he seems not quite human – a sense of unease and terror that works on many levels. Calmly ordering murders one moment while helping little old ladies the next, Bulger is working on his own honour code that is all the more intriguing when it’s revealed his brother William (Benedict Cumberbatch) is president of the Massachusetts Senate. Just how is a criminal like Bulger created?
Cooper only gives nods to these questions, as well as Bulger’s ten years between Leavenworth and Alcatraz in the ’50s and ’60s, where he was a subject in CIA drug experiments. Instead, Cooper focuses on wars between Irish and Italian gangs, Bulger’s increasingly crooked machinations with vain, weaselly FBI agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton), and their journey to exposure.
Adapted from Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill’s book, Cooper’s film retains the journalists’ obsession with chronology and fact. This cold, detached approach echoes the unforgiving nature of this cut-throat world, but can leave the film feeling thematically empty. The greatest crime films, from The Godfather to JC Chandor’s recent triumph A Most Violent Year, are emotionally devastating because they’re about something: masculinity, guilt, identity, family. Black Mass is all about Bulger.
But thankfully, that means it’s all about Depp. And you won’t be able to tear your eyes from him – even when you want to.