Black Mass

It's no secret that Johnny Depp physically transforms himself in Black Mass in order to play notorious criminal and murderer, James "Whitey" Bulger.  The trailers and ad campaign is enough to convince you that the actor is barely recognizable and disappears behind realistic make up.  What is surprising is just how intense the performance is.  Depp not only transforms himself, he embodies the character with his dead-eye stare, a featureless face and one of the most chilling cinematic laughs since Heath Ledger embodied the Joker.  He not only delivers his best performance in years, but the first that could be labeled as chilling and haunting.

If you need a perfect example, look at two perfectly executed scenes that occur late in the film, one right after another.  In the first, he is seated around a table with some of his friends after joining them for a meal.  He asks the host of the dinner the secret behind his family recipe, and after some gentle coaxing, James gets the secret recipe out of him.  At that point, James' demeanor changes completely.  He sees how quickly his friend was willing to give up the secret, and now he begins to question if he can trust his friend with his own secrets.  The entire atmosphere in the room changes to one of complete dread.  Everyone is eyeing everyone else nervously, while Depp keeps the same sinister and stone-cold look on his face.  Then, he bursts out laughing.  It is not a laugh of amusement, as it seems to come from a much darker place.  James says he is just joking, but nobody at the table seems relieved.  The same goes for the audience, who is gripped with just as much tension and dread as the characters surrounding Bulgur up there on the screen.

The scene continues, with him heading upstairs and having a quiet but tense conversation with the wife of the man who has invited him to his home.  She is played by Julianne Nicholson, and she obviously does not trust Bulgur, and wants nothing to do with him.  And yet, here he is at her bedroom door, "checking on her", because she has lied and said she is ill.  The quiet confrontation that the two actors share is more tense than just about any action sequence you saw during the summer.  Black Mass is a movie filled with quiet power.  It never draws attention to itself, and never feels bombastic or melodramatic.  The characters in the film are mannered and sometimes ice-cold, until it is time to strike.  Then the movie displays shocking violence.  And it's not just shocking because of the brutality, but because it almost seems out of place in this movie that is normally quiet and calm.  But that was the danger of Bulgur.  You could never tell what he was thinking from his face until it was too late.  And Depp's performance captures this silent menace and hidden deadly force perfectly.

The filmmakers have wisely chosen not to make this a complete bio-film of Bulger, but mostly focus on one of the most important and shocking moments of his long criminal career, in which he was virtually untouchable by the police because he was helping them, all the while getting permission to pretty much do whatever he wanted.  How did this alliance come to be?  Bulgur had known FBI agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) since childhood, as they had grown up in the same neighborhood.  It was Connolly who got Bulgur involved, hoping that his friend could get him some information on the Italian mob.  Bulgur was at war with the mob, and knew that this would be a great way to muscle in on their territory, which he naturally took advantage of.  The head of the FBI (Kevin Bacon) could not touch him, and Bulgur used his connections through law enforcement to keep his record clean.

As Connolly, Edgerton portrays a perfect sense of nervousness.  He is someone who is willing to take advantage of the perks and promotions he gets for helping to shut down the mob, but as Bulgur's stranglehold on him grows stronger, we can tell that he knows he is getting in too deep.  He knows this, but can't do anything about it.  He is the man who invites Bulgur over for dinner in that scene I was describing earlier, and the fear that he feels for this man he is bound to is palpable.  We can see it in his face, and even in his nervous mannerisms.  And when he tries to explain his actions to his much more ethical wife, we don't know if he is trying to convince her or himself.  The other major performance in the film belongs to Benedict Cumberbatch as Jame's brother, William, who holds power in the Senate and helps cover up his brother's action.  And while it's a less showy role than Depp or Edgerton, he still manages to create a sense of conflict while saying very little.

Black Mass is not exactly what I would call a subtle film.  It's very black and white, and there are few layers to the characters.  But, the performances and the dialogue are strong enough to make you son engrossed in what's going on up on the screen, you don't care.  Besides, it's not like the movie doesn't try to make us sympathize with Whitey Bulgur from time to time.  There is a wonderful moment when his young son falls ill and is hospitalized, and the devastation this causes him is evident.  We feel for him for these brief moments, and Depp delivers some of his best acting in years during these moments.  For once, he is playing a human character, albeit a largely terrible one.  After years of playing weirdos and oddballs, here is a role that allows him to not only hide behind a mask as he is prone to do, but also deliver a performance that can be both heartbreaking and terrifying.

This is not just a powerful film with gripping performances, but also a highly entertaining one.  I can only hope it leads to stronger roles for Depp, and some award recognition come next winter.  This is a movie that can be unflinching in its depiction of violence and cruelty, but it is all the better for that, because it allows us into the world these characters inhabit.  And for the roughly two hours the film runs, we are at its complete and total mercy.

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