'Black Mass' A Review

Black Mass is a biographical crime drama about the life of Boston mobster Whitey Bulger(Johnny Depp). The movie starts in 1975 and goes through 1985 using interrogations from Bulger's associates from when the organization was eventually prosecuted as a substitute for narration. At the beginning of the movie FBI agent John Connolly(Joel Edgerton) strikes up an association with Bulger and in exchange for information about the Italian mafia the Irish mob Bulger head's is given immunity and grows.

The pacing of the movie is glacial and much time is spent attempting to elicit understanding if not out right sympathy for Bulger and Connolly. Given they are two categorically bad men, Bulger an out right monster, driven by simple greed and power this focus is unsuccessful, uninteresting, and somewhat mystifying. Although the cast is star studded the script gives the actors nothing much to do. Time passes and crimes take place but ultimately nothing much happens, the action involves characters we do not care about. The movie is also miserable in its portrayal of women offering only wives and whores with little screen time. This discrepancy is highlighted by the best scenes in the movie involving Connolly's wife played by Julianne Nicholson and the prostitute played by Juno Temple.

Plodding, uninspired, and lazy. Better to revisit the fictionalized version in The Departed.

Don't See It.