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Black Mass (out of 4) Starring Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson, Julianne Nicholson, Corey Stoll, Peter Sarsgaard, Kevin Bacon, Adam Scott and Juno Temple. Directed by Scott Cooper. At GTA theatres. 122 minutes. 14A
Johnny Depp emerges from the shadows of Black Mass like a vampire from a crypt, a fearsome figure of pale skin, serpentine eyes and murderous leer.
He’s the central figure of a crime drama that creeps and drips blood like a horror movie, and in many respects it is.
Through makeup and intuition, Depp utterly transforms himself into James “Whitey” Bulger, the Mobster who ruled South Boston with savage entitlement from the 1970s to the early 1990s, before his Irish luck ran out. (Now 86, he’s behind bars on 48 charges, including 19 counts of murder.)
Bulger ran drugs and guns, shook down honest business folk for protection money and even — so it is thought — boosted a $14-million Massachusetts state lottery prize.
Anyone who crossed him, for any reason, risked getting two in the head and a final dunk in the Neponset River.
Bulger did all this with startling impunity, because he was a secret gangland snitch for the FBI, which cared more about stopping the local Mafia than his Winter Hill Gang. The devil’s deal was brokered by Bulger’s childhood “Southie” pal John Connolly, an FBI man played as a mess of ambitious intentions by Joel Edgerton. The gang lord also had a brother in high places: Massachusetts Senate President William “Billy” Bulger, whom Benedict Cumberbatch coolly portrays as incorruptible yet somehow sinister.
Director Scott Cooper ( Crazy Heart, Out of the Furnace), works the story like a campfire fright tale told by Martin Scorsese, heavily referenced, from a fact-based screenplay by Mark Mallouk and Jez Butterworth.
Ex-accomplices of Bulger spill their guts to police inquisitors while flashbacks reveal the extent of Bulger’s satanic doings.
Depp digs into Bulger’s black soul with obvious relish, no doubt seeking a role worthy of his abundant talents after years of mostly mirthful coasting. He presents him as a collision of opposites: a cold-blooded killer with bad teeth, vile temper and a trigger finger; but, at the same time, a fastidious family man devoted to his aging mother (he lets her cheat at cards) and bullied young son (he counsels the art of stealth defence).
This towering performance threatens to overwhelm all the other actors, as well as the narrative, but three women rise out of the testosterone tide. Dakota Johnson makes brief but memorable appearances as Bulger’s fearless girlfriend Lindsey, mother of his son; Julianne Nicholson commands respect as Connol- ly’s brave wife, Marianne; and Juno Temple owns one of the film’s most riveting scenes, as a hooker who mistakes Bulger for a reasonable man.
It’s good to see Johnny go toe to toe with other strong actors, but in most other respects, Black Mass is his film and ticket to a Best Actor nomination.
After seeing this, the Academy might be afraid not to give him Oscar gold.