Not so goodfellas

Rating: 6/10 (5 December 2015)

This, we're told, is the true story of James 'Whitey' Bulger (Johnny Depp with a dubious hairline), an Irish American crime lord who 'ran' South Boston with savage ruthlessness in the 1970s and 80s but turned informer to help the FBI clear out Cosa Nostra rivals who were threatening his 'turf' in protection, gambling, drugs, all the usual rackets. So far, so familiar. The unusual element to this story is that Bulger's brother Billy was a rising figure in the Massachusetts state senate. One of the movie's great flaws is that it never makes clear why James's criminal activities, which regularly made the newspapers, had no apparent impact on the senator's career for more than twenty years.
The movie's other great flaw is the "so far, so familiar" element. Stories like this have been told before, with repeated scenes of violence and fusillades of f-words, in GOODFELLAS and with a lot less profanity and a lot more style in the GODFATHER trilogy. We see James ordering and even carrying out brutal killings, but despite the weird hair and weirder expressions Depp's performance has a slightly pantomime air about it: you don't feel the incarnate evil of Ben Kingsley in SEXY BEAST or Sean Penn in DEAD MAN WALKING. Cumberbatch has a good stab at Bobby Kennedy Boston, but does not look comfortable in the role. Joel Egerton is probably the best thing in it as the star FBI agent who finds that dancing with the devil puts his soul in peril. A gripping movie, even enthralling, but short on originality.