It was a decent film, but there could have been so much more to it.

Rating: 7/10 (23 September 2015)

Aside from the brilliant performance given by Johnny Depp, I actually expected many more aspects of this film to be just as excellent. Scott Cooper and his team of screenwriters knew they could have done anything they wanted with the material at hand, but their efforts can only be described as 'decent' at best. Half the time, I felt like I was watching separate segments of a miniseries edited together than a movie with a naturally flowing narrative. Each time a sequence - which is equal to an important event within Whitey Bulger's life - fades to black, the film jumps across a considerable amount of time (usually years) before focusing on the next important event in his life. This same structure can be also found in the film 'Goodfellas', but the only difference is, that film is better paced, and as a result, has a story that feels more coherent and whole.
I also felt that most of the ensemble cast was wasted. Many of the supporting actors are fantastic in their roles, but their screen- time is limited to such a degree that they barely leave any sort of impression on you. It may be easy to say that Depp's performance overshadowed everyone else's, but that doesn't explain why the film cycles through most of its characters without going into much (or any) detail of their lives.
Yet for some reason, the film still feels like it tries to squeeze too much into its runtime. There were times I had trouble trying to follow the plot all because I couldn't keep track of the sheer number of cardboard characters that were seemingly appearing from out of nowhere. That said, 'Black Mass' would have worked much better if had been adapted as a ten-part miniseries than a two-hour film. At least that way, the book would have received the justice it truly deserved.