Johnny Depp plays the man who ran South Boston, and Joel Edgerton plays the agent who let him get away with it. That’s the engine of Black Mass, a true-crime drama about the unholy alliance between the FBI and the Irish Mob in Boston. The film is based on Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill’s 2000 book Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob, and it follows James “Whitey” Bulger through his rise, his fall, and the years in between.
Depp stars as Bulger, the king of Winter Hill, a gang that controlled most organized crime in South Boston in the mid-1970s. He runs the streets with his right-hand man Stephen Flemmi, newcomer Kevin Weeks, and callous hitman Johnny Martorano. Bulger’s power is threatened by the Angiulo Brothers, a rival gang tied to the New England Mafia. FBI agent John Connolly, a native of South Boston, comes back to town and offers Bulger a deal: become an informant and take down the Angiulos.
The film opens in 1975, when Bulger’s grip on South Boston is total. Connolly, played by Edgerton, knows the streets and knows Bulger’s family. His father, William “Billy” Bulger, is the Massachusetts Senate president. Connolly believes Bulger can help him infiltrate the Angiulo operation. Bulger is a proud man, and he hates the idea of being a rat. But he agrees anyway, because the protection it affords him, his gang, and his family is too valuable to refuse.
The film moves fast through the 1980s and early 1990s, compressing decades into a lean, mean runtime. Depp is the center of attention, and he commits fully to the part. He plays Bulger as a cold, calculating man who is also a father and a lover, even as he orders hits and collects protection money. The film doesn’t romanticize him. It shows him as a criminal who is also a man with a family, and that tension is the core of the story.
Edgerton’s Connolly is the film’s other lead, and he is just as compelling. Connolly is a good man gone wrong, a cop who loses his moral compass because he trusts Bulger. The film shows him growing closer to the gang, inviting them to his house for cookouts, and ignoring the warning signs from his wife, Marianne. Edgerton plays the decline with quiet dread. It’s a performance that builds slowly and pays off in the final act.
The supporting cast is strong throughout. Dakota Johnson plays Lindsey Cyr, Bulger’s longtime girlfriend, who is devastated when their young son Douglas dies of Reye syndrome and removes him from life support over Bulger’s furious objections. Peter Sarsgaard plays Brian Halloran, and Corey Stoll plays Fred Wyshak. Kevin Bacon plays FBI Agent Charles McGuire, the boss who is suspicious of Connolly’s arrangement. Jesse Plemons plays Kevin Weeks, and Juno Temple plays Deborah Hussey, one of Bulger’s victims. David Harbour plays John Morris, a corrupt FBI agent who supports Connolly. Adam Scott plays FBI Agent Robert Fitzpatrick.
The film was shot in Boston between May and August 2014. It premiered at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival and was released by Warner Bros. Pictures worldwide on September 18, 2015. It received generally positive reviews and grossed $100 million on a $53 million budget.
Trailer, via Warner Bros..
Depp’s Bulger and Edgerton’s Connolly
Depp’s Bulger is a portrait of a man who is both terrifying and sad. He is a killer, but he is also a man who loves his son and his girlfriend. The film never lets us forget that. Depp plays the coldness and the warmth in the same scene, and it works. He is the best thing in the movie.
Edgerton’s Connolly is equally good. He plays the decline with a slow burn. Connolly starts as a good man doing a bad job, and he ends up a broken man who has lost everything. Edgerton finds the humanity in a character who could easily be a cartoon. It’s a performance that rewards patience.
“Keep your enemies close.”
That line, the film’s tagline, sums up the whole story. Bulger keeps his enemies close because he trusts them less than he trusts the FBI. Connolly keeps Bulger close because he trusts him more than he trusts the law. Both men are wrong, and the film shows the consequences of their trust.
The Cast Around Them
The supporting cast is solid across the board. Johnson brings a grounded sadness to Lindsey Cyr. She is the one who suffers the most in the story, and Johnson makes that clear without ever becoming maudlin. Plemons and Temple round out the picture as the young gang members who orbit Bulger’s world.
Bacon is fine as McGuire, the boss who is suspicious of the arrangement. He plays the straight man to Connolly’s loose cannon. Harbour is excellent as Morris, the corrupt agent who supports Connolly. He is a man who knows what is happening and does nothing to stop it. Scott rounds out the cast as Fitzpatrick, the agent who is more careful than the others.
What Works and What Doesn’t
The film is at its best when it is focused on the relationship between Bulger and Connolly. Their scenes together crackle with tension and affection. The film understands that these two men are not enemies. They are partners in a crime, and that partnership is the heart of the story.
Where the film stumbles is in its handling of the violence. The film is rated R for strong violence, and it delivers on that rating. But the violence is often blunt rather than precise. The killings happen quickly, and the film rarely lingers on the aftermath. This is a film about corruption, and it should spend more time on the emotional cost of that corruption.
The film also struggles with pacing in the middle stretch. The 1980s are compressed into a handful of scenes, and the film skips over details that would have given the story more weight. The Angiulo Brothers are a threat, but the film never quite makes them feel like a real danger. They are more of a plot device than a living gang.
A Solid, Flawed Picture
Black Mass is a well-made film with a great central performance. Depp and Edgerton carry it, and the supporting cast gives them room to breathe. The film is flawed in its handling of violence and pacing, but those flaws don’t sink the whole enterprise. It is a solid picture that deserves its reputation as one of the better true-crime dramas of recent years.
The film is not perfect, but it is effective. It tells a true story with clarity and style. It respects the audience by showing the ugly truth of what happened, rather than dressing it up as a thriller. It is a film about power, trust, and the price of both. It is a film about a man who was a monster and a man who was a fool.
The film’s score is 6.8 out of 10, and that feels right. It is a good film, not a great one. It is a film that is worth seeing, but it is not a film that demands multiple viewings. It is a film that will be remembered for its performances and its story, but not for its technical brilliance.
The film ends with Bulger’s fall, and it does not flinch from the ugliness of it. It shows a man who was caught, and it shows a man who deserved to be caught. It is a fitting end to a story about a man who lived outside the law and finally had to pay for it.
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