Overall decent attempt minus the details

Rating: 6/10 (23 August 2017)

Exquisitely rendered period piece with stellar acting. The problem lies in its ad-hoc dramatization of the facts. The book upon which this film is based includes many details that are absent from the movie, as is typical of adaptations; yet here, it's a detriment. Consider for one Whitey Bulger grabbing a prepubescent boy from the neck and forcing him to give the reigning mob boss a blowjob... Is Johnny Depp with the cloud-steel blue contacts "dancing" without knowing the whole story? I'd guess not. In fact, i think that the boy- sex-scene wound up on the cutting room floor. In fact, I thonk that many vital scenes were cut to make the film of- appropriate-length and also legallly-acceptabe in terms of violence and sex that's acceptable by the ratings association. In the vein of films like "Goodfellas," this mob movie is subpar and solid. Yet it's content could've been extraordinary if indeed the scriptwriter had looked beyond the the mob cliché to include its inspiration to the fullest.