Too well made to be bad, but sadly far from the sum of it's parts

Rating: 7/10 (3 December 2015)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
The true story of James 'Whitey' Bulger, who, in 1970s Boston, quickly rose through the ranks to become the most feared gangster on the scene...with some assistance from the FBI. Bulger's Winter Hill mob are claiming their territory, much to the annoyance of their rivals, who are sure to have them wiped out. But FBI Agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton), who grew up on the same streets as Bulger and his lawyer brother Billy (Benedict Cumberbatch), but took a rapidly different path, spots a chance to take care of Bulger's adversaries for him, by having him become an FBI informant. However, he underestimates the man's capacity for acquiring power, and before long finds his world crumbling down around him.
It would seem rival gangsters controlling various territories in towns and cities across America was pretty much par for the course for most of the twentieth century, if the depiction on numerous films is to be believed, but the ones that make for the best viewing are the ones that make fact seem stranger than fiction. Out of the Furnace director Scott Cooper has dug this promising but not entirely delivering offering out of the mire. Introducing us to a character in the world we've probably never heard of, but whose exploits were so fantastical it's amazing we didn't, it's too well made to be absolutely awful, but it's faults still make it well less than the sum of its parts.
While many haven't raved about the film, they have had a lot of praise for Depp's lead performance, but personally I felt it lacked true conviction, and failed to really unnerve me or come off as cold or calculated as Denzel Washington in American Gangster, or even Michael Shannon in The Iceman. It maybe got a little chillier toward the end, after he's killed a ridiculous amount of people, but on the whole nothing that great, despite the impressive lizard face transformation. A bit more impressive is actually Cumberbatch, who just owns his role a little more and manages a fine Boston accent, while Rick Astley alike Edgerton functions fine as the guy on the right side of the law.
The film has an interesting and complex story to tell, but in all honesty it tries to cram too much in, and it ends up becoming laborious, poorly paced and, as a result, unengaging. While its fine points cannot be ignored, it comes off as a serviceable film rather than a great one. ***