Black Mass

The performances that you see in the movie Black Mass may excite you, but the slow narrative that shows us the bright zone of one of the most ruthless gangsters in USA has flaws that kind of get not so visible because of the clever casting of perfect actors. I sort of felt that if they made a film on Jimmy’s fugitive life, it would have got a more cinematic feel.

Well the whole story is available in the web as it is a real life story. James whitey Bulger aka Jimmy is a gang head in the South Boston in the 70’s. The guy was smart enough to do his bad deeds without any witnesses which made arresting him a difficult task for the judicial setup. The movie mainly focuses on that bright patch of Jimmy’s life where the attempt of FBI to use him to catch other gang heads ultimately ends up in his favor. The events that happen during that phase and how it all ends is what the film narrating.

Black Mass is pretty much performance oriented. I would call it a dramatized docufiction. They are not really giving you any captivating factor about the background or any of the characters in the movie. It is basically plain narration of events that happened in real life. The casting helps the movie in a big way as the performers has really got into their assigned characters. One scene that I would say had a creative charm was the instance where Jimmy tells his son about doing a crime without witnesses. The scene in its minimalistic best represents the character of Bulger very smartly. More such creative makeovers would have made this film a wonderful creation.

Johnny Depp as always in his effortless style does a fab job. Not to be ignored is the stunning makeover given to him by the makeup artists. In my opinion Joel Edgerton had a better share of scenes that demanded a versatile performance. John Connolly’s character is actually the master mind of all this risk and that puts the character in various emotional situations at different point of time. Benedict Cumberbatch was good in his character. The rest of the cast was also nice.

Scott Cooper makes the movie look like a less enticing docufiction. The slow narrative they chose would have worked positively if the ultimate product had some sort of depth in showing us the background of Mr. Bulger. Screenplay needed a bit more juiciness in presenting certain stuff, may be the window to improvise was too narrow as all these stuff really happened. Cinematography and edits are fine and the background score was quite minimal.

On the whole, Black Mass is a good film that narrates its story in an okay way with a cast that performs in a very impressive way. The rating for the film is 3/5. A smarter depiction about the alliance was missing.