Johnny Depp is back in form yet Black Mass fails to reach Goodfellas heights of meance

JOHNNY Depp gives one of his best performances and the film Black Mass has a killer story. So why does the movie fall so flat?

BLACK MASS (MA15+)

Director: Scott Cooper (Out of the Furnace)

Starring: Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rory Cochrane, Jesse Plemons, Dakota Johnson.

Rating: 2.5/5

Ordaining a high priest of the lowlife

ON paper, the new gangster drama Black Mass has much going for it.

Most notably, a remarkable true story, and the long-awaited return of Johnny Depp to ‘serious’ acting.

On screen, however, Black Massdoesn’t go anywhere much.

Though its compelling tale of a heartless, vicious hoodlum hitting great heights with the full support of the FBI remains intact — and Depp is indeed in the best form we have seen in many years — this oddly static experience fails to capitalise on its best assets.

The central figure in proceedings here is the notorious Boston crime lord James ‘Whitey’ Bulger (Depp).

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Johnny Depp is in his best form as crime lord James ‘Whitey’ Bulger. Pictures: Roadside Pictures.

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As the film begins in the mid-1970s, Bulger is merely a mid-strength mobster, making ends meet with a small clutch of protection rackets on his home turf in South Boston.

Both the era and locale are important in Black Mass, as the simple matter of where you were born and raised counted for a lot at the time in this part of the world.

If you grew up a “Southie”, then you shared a bond with friends and enemies alike that was beyond the reach of the law.

Black hearts: Joel Edgerton and Johnny Depp strike a deal in Black Mass.

This goes a long way to explaining how the FBI proceeded to hand Bulger an open licence to do as he pleased for almost twenty years.

An ambitious young agent named John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) hailed from the same neighbourhood as Bulger.

Looking to make a name for himself by ending the Mafia’s long and lucrative stranglehold on crime in Boston, Connolly brokered a bizarre, yet highly effective alliance with Bulger.

If the proudly Irish Whitey was prepared to rat out his Italian rivals, then the FBI was more than happy to look the other way while Bulger expanded his own operations.

Faultless: The performances in Black Mass, including those of Edgerton (right) and Benedict Cumberbatch, aren’t the problem.

While Connolly and the agency enjoyed some short-term success by claiming several major Mafia scalps, it was Whitey Bulger that went on to make the most of the dubious deal.

Blatantly ignoring the FBI’s stipulation that there be “no drugs and no killing”, Bulger rapidly became an out-of-control monster that could not be reeled back in by his supposed handlers.

As an added layer of protection, Whitey’s kid brother Billy (Benedict Cumberbatch) just happened to be the most powerful senator in the state.

On a performance level, Black Mass cannot be faulted. Depp’s portrayal of Bulger — particularly once his psychopathic character’s unmistakeable charisma gives way to unfiltered evil — is a stunning and disturbing creation that ranks with some of the actor’s best work.

Depp produces some of his best work in Black Mass. Picture: Roadshow Pictures

Edgerton, Cumberbatch and a well-chosen support cast are also in the right zone to convey exactly what is required by the conflicted men they play.

However, where the film repeatedly stumbles — and never comes close to righting itself — is all to do with its soporific, one-note screenplay.

The lyrically menacing flow of a work like Scorsese’s GoodFellas was what was sorely needed here. Instead, the feeling that the screenplay is working slowly through a checklist of criminal atrocities never goes away.

Originally published as Johnny Depp is back in form yet Black Mass fails to reach Goodfellas heights of meance