The problem with crime fiction is originality. There aren't a thousand ways to illegally profit from the misery of other people, so plot often has to take the backseat to setting and characters in crime movies and novels. Adapting true crime stories into a narrative is another thing that seems to function at the moment. Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill's book on Whitey Bulger Black Mass was adapted to cinema in 2015 by director of Crazy Heart Scott Cooper in what was a very spirited attempt to revive the old and gritty Boston. The result is undoubtedly competent, but it's too slick and self-conscious to live up to its owns ambitions.
If you don't know who Whitey Bulger (Johnny Depp) is, you're missing out on one of the most rotten chapters in the history of the FBI. He was a small-time gangster in South Boston who became an FBI "informant" to a childhood friend John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) in exchange for protection while he was bleeding Boston's underworld dry and becoming the most fearsome gangster on the East Coast. Black Mass is the story of Bulger's rise to power and subsequent reign of terror over his enemies, friends, family members and whoever was unfortunate enough to be in his way. Think a very unpleasant Tony Montana, except for real *.
Black Mass is a slick and well-written movie, it's just not very original. Whether the self-made crime lord protagonist is real or not, it's been done before and it's been done almost in this exact same way. Scott Cooper was obviously very self-conscious about that problem, so he tried to work his way around it in several different manners without really committing to one. For example, Black Mass focuses on the transformation of Whitey Bulger from a friendly-neighborhood psychopath to a major leagues one, which is symbolized in the movie by the purchase of a rapper-sized gold chain Bulger starts wearing around his neck halfway through the movie.
Don't stare at him straight into the eyes, kids.
Scott Cooper's use of the cast is vital to this idea of transformation. Johnny Depp for example doesn't look anything like Whitey Bulger used to, but his feral and borderline demonic interpretation give the part a life of its own. It's an instance where Cooper relied on his cast's talent rather than on his story to carry the film. The support cast is inexplicably strong featuring names like Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jesse Plemons and Kevin freakin' Bacon, who are all great, but keep stepping on each other's toes for screen time. Little known actor Peter Sarsgaard ended up blowing them all out of the water with a hilarious, yet bizarrely moving interpretation of a coke-addled bandit. So either both Depp and him would've deserved more place or the movie should've focused on the institutional breakdown instead. The movie has one foot in both angles.
Because in the end, Black Mass has somewhat of an identity. Most of the Johnny Depp scenes are legitimately scary and the pompous, borderline horror-ish score worked a number on me. Its identity isn't strong though. The slick and stylish old school crime drama has been done a zillion times in recent years and as creepy and absolutely real as he might've been, Bulger doesn't really hold a candle to the fictional crime lords who have graced the silver screen with their presence over the last decades. At least, not this Bulger. Black Mass is a pleasant viewing, but it will make you feel like you've just watched a movie you've already seen a couple times before. It has great ideas on how to stand out, but it just doesn't commit to them.