Directed by Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart; Out of the Furnace) and starring Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl; Finding Neverland; Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Alice in Wonderland), Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game; sherlock (tv series); Star Trek Into Darkness; The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug), Joel Edgerton (The Great Gatsby; The Gift; Exodus: Gods and Kings; Zero Dark Thirty), Kevin Bacon (The River Wild; Apollo 13; X-Men: First Class; Mystic River) and Peter Sarsgaard (Flightplan; Jarhead; Green Lantern; Blue Jasmine)
Drama, 122 mins; 16+
Black Mass recounts the true story of James 'Whitey' Bulger (Johnny Depp), an organised crime boss active in South Boston and also the brother of William "Billy" Bulger (Benedict Cumberbatch), state senator for Massachusetts.
The film recounts the story of 'Whitey' Bulger up to the mid-1990s, focusing on his relationship as an informant with FBI officer John Connolly (Joel Edgerton). The two grew up together and met again in the last 1970s by which time they had bother become established and respected either side of the law. While their initial plan was to take down Boston's Italian Mafia, things spiralled out of control....
while the pretext and background were sound enough and the factual story fascinating, the presentation on screen leaves a lot to be desired. The main issue relates to the chopping and changing with flash-backs and flash-fowards, meaning that - for a time at least - it is very confusing to work out the sequence of events. The last quarter of the film is arguably the strongest when all the strands start to come together and the audience is taken on a violent journey until the thrilling climax. As an aside, Johnny Depp's character make-up is so heavy that he is almost unrecognisable only from his mannerisms.
