Black Mass review: Great cast, great plot but Johnny Depp's prosthetics can't save the film

A notorious criminal, an ambitious FBI agent, Boston in the 1970s and the blood-spattered life of mobsters — on paper, Black Mass has everything you need for a gripping thriller. At its centre is a man who is a master manipulator, killer and folk hero, all rolled into one. He begins as a small-time crook and ends up as the second most wanted man in America, with a lot of help from the FBI. In addition to this firecracker of a plot, Black Mass has Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson, Kevin Bacon and other starry names in its cast. What could possibly go wrong? Too much, unfortunately. South Boston boy John Connolly (Edgerton) has hit a home run when he becomes a respected FBI agent and everyone’s expecting him to clean up his hometown. In the rougher neighbourhoods that Connolly grew up in — known as “Southie” — the mob rules more than the law. Brawls are regular, blood spatters are common and there’s nothing unusual about men being killed at gunpoint in broad daylight. Connolly turns to his childhood friend and minor mobster “Whitey” Bulger (Depp) and convinces Whitey to become an FBI informant. Ostensibly, the idea is that Whitey will provide FBI with information required to dismantle the Italian mafia that’s made Boston a pit of criminality. [caption id=“attachment_2438372” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Johnny Depp in Black Mass.[/caption] Whitey agrees, but it quickly becomes clear that Whitney is the one with the upper hand. He wants the Italians out so that his Winter Hill gang can rule the mob roost. As an informant, he has FBI’s protection and with that as his invisibility cloak, Whitey unleashes a mini massacre in Southie that wipes out his competition. All the while, Connolly, staying loyal to his childhood friend, protects Whitey from the law. The questions that we should be asking while watching Black Mass are whether Whitey will actually succeed in getting the better of the FBI and if Connolly will get sniffed out? Instead, we find ourselves wondering whether the wig on Edgerton’s head is made of plasticine and if the expressionless Depp is actually a vampire, because what else explains that Edward Cullen-esque pallor and lifelessness? The prosthetics, fake hair and ice-blue contact lenses make Depp resemble Whitey, but it’s all so patently a feat of make-up that Whitey might as well have been CGI. Despite being based on a true story, Black Mass feels theatrical and fake. Everyone is obviously playing a part and the performances all feel hollow. When Edgerton puts on the swagger of Connolly bluffing to his FBI colleagues, for example, it’s quite evidently an act, but there’s no sense of what is happening beneath that façade and none of his colleagues seem to spot the acting. Depp might as well have had a cheerleading squad, squealing “Give this man’s make-up team an Oscar!”, in every scene. The other actors who play members of Whitey’s Winter Hill Gang make an exhibition of their Boston accents. The two actors who do manage a few moments of credibility are Johnson as Whitey’s girlfriend and Peter Sarsgaard as a minor criminal who ends up in Whitey’s clutches. They’re both wasted in tiny roles that make you wish the screenplay had given more time to their characters and their conflicts. Cumberbatch isn’t awful as Whitey’s brother, a senator and one of the most powerful men in Boston. However, Cumberbatch isn’t able to lose all of his posh, British aura and ultimately, you don’t believe he belongs with the other Southie men. The Whitey Bulger legend has inspired some great films, notably The Departed and the documentary, Whitey: The United States of America v James J Bulger. They obviously made an impact on screenwriters Mark Mallouk and Jez Butterworth, but Black Mass doesn’t come together as a screenplay. It’s supposed to be Whitey’s story as recounted by his deputies, who are recording testimonies for the FBI. But the writers forget their own storytelling device and in no time, we’re seeing scenes in which Whitey is on his own and that his henchmen could never have known. Characters — particularly the women — appear and disappear arbitrarily. The violence is repetitive and gratuitous. Director Scott Cooper is quite evidently a Martin Scorsese fan and he does pull off some stylish moments of raw emotion and photogenic violence in Black Mass. However, he struggles to establish any tension in the film. There’s barely a tussle for power between Whitey and the FBI. Neither is Cooper able to flesh out the irony of Whitey’s henchmen spending just a few years in jail because they turned informers and ratted on their leader, while Connolly serves a 40-year sentence because he remained loyal to Whitey and said nothing. Black Mass ends up being a forgettable film, with only Depp’s unnervingly artificial and lifeless face lingering in memory like the dregs of a nightmare. Go pick up a DVD of The Departed instead and you’ll get a better sense of why Whitey Bulger spawned a legend.