Dark and slow

Rating: 2/10 (8 October 2015)

I was so looking forward to this movie and was so disappointed! Many of the actual events took place within a mile or two of my apartment and one scene was shot a five minute walk away. A dozen or so people I know took part in the filming, which was a big deal in Boston and seemed like a huge amount of fun. But the result is dark, dreay, and really, really slow.
I read the book while the movie was being filmed at found it to be a real page turner. Almost none of the drama and suspense, though, made it off the page. Everything seemed completely predictable, I would think, even to someone who had never heard of Whitey Bulger and his exploits. Even the violence was tedious. The film is less than two hours long and seemed more like six.
The acting was fine. Some of it was even quite good. The cinematography was excellent. But the general effect was gray and lifeless, almost plot less, very odd for a gangster flick. I've actually met Billy Bulger and he is a much more vivid character than appeared in this film, no fault to Cumberbatch so far as I could see. If the book is anything to go by, the other characters were similarly dialed down. The mournfully tasteful, softly sobbing violins of the sound track set a mood that seemed afraid to get above a grayish whisper.
And, aside from a couple of skyline views and City Hall, which incongruously plays FBI Headquarters (the real thing is in an office tower next door), there is almost nothing recognizable as Boston. The gritty, contradictory texture the city had in the '70s, the high contrasts between the old and grand, the glittery new, and the old and just run down are entirely missing. Huge chunks of the original script, including whole days of shooting and many characters, were cut out altogether, allegedly to quicken the pace. Alas, a sacrifice to no end.