Always good, rarely great

Rating: 6/10 (18 November 2015)

"Black Mass" is the newest movie by writer and director Scott Cooper although he "only" directed here. I quite enjoyed his previous works "Crazy Heart" and "Out of the Furnace", so I was pretty curious about this two-hour movie here. After his takes on alcoholism and revenge, he gives us an insight into the world of crime in 1970s' and 1980s' Boston. The main character in all this is James Bulger played by Johnny Depp. I must admit that I am not the greatest Depp fan, but he is okay in this movie. Again, it is much more the makeup and the ruthless way (with murdering people left and right) he was written than Depp giving a truly great performance, but still he is fine overall.
The MVP, however, is Joel Edgerton as John Connolly and I can totally see why he is considered for his first Oscar nomination here. He is the epitome of a sleazy unlikeable federal agent in here, who is not afraid at all of getting his hands dirty, even if he does not do so in the physical sense. However, he refuses people witness protection after they testify against Bulger and he is really close with the ruthless criminal himself. The character of Connolly's wife, played by Julianne Nicholson, actually gives the appropriate reaction to a man like Bulger, which is staying as far away from him as possible. Cochrane is fine too. I am a bit biased on him as he's an actor I like. Sad to see he does not have that much to work with, but he is still pretty good. Actually, early on I had to think of him in "CSI: Miami" when he is the aide to Horatio Caine and in here Depp is almost the evil equivalent. Everybody fears him (unless they're drunk), nobody dares to say a word against him and even his girlfriend/wife (played by the stunning Dakota Johnson) doesn't really dare to interfere when he tries to get their son as well on the path of crime.
I felt that "Black Mass" needed a bit to get going, maybe 25-30 minutes, but afterwards I watched a very solid crime thriller, which is even more interesting because it's close to reality. Basically all the major characters in here, including the two Bulger Brothers (I keep reading Bulgur), are still alive today. Talking about the brothers, Cumberbatch disappointed me here. He had quite a bit to work with to make this an even better movie in terms of solidarity and respect between brothers, but it never was an interesting topic and the film would not have been worse without him. So my final verdict is that I hope Edgerton gets an Oscar nomination as he carried the film nicely (without Depp's heavy makeup and costume and truly baity material). His arrest near the end was the finest moment of the film. I recommend "Black Mass". Certainly worth a watch if you like historic crime thrillers.