Something was missing....

Rating: 6/10 (30 November 2015)

I can't argue with the fact that Black Mass achieved commercial success. It also managed to transform you into the time and place of the setting and wrap you around the prevailing mood. It was good direction in my opinion. The director achieved what he could achieve with the tools he had.
My criticism comes in two broad veins: (1) casting/appearance and (2) script.
Jonny Depp is an excellent actor but the prosthetics used on his face made him look like Jonny Depp but not like Jonny Depp at the same time. And I couldn't help but get distracted by it perpetually. Those blue contact lenses were the worst offender. I was waiting for the point where this piercing "blueness" was weaved into the story and the character of Whitey somehow - and whilst subtly this was achieved - it wasn't enough to take away from the distraction. In addition why on earth was Benedict Cumberbatch in this film? He looked woefully out of place. He didn't look like his family in anyway and his role appeared to be to just remind everyone Whitey had a brother who was a politician. Alternatively it was just a name to add to the credits and posters. An unknown would have been perfect for this. The "pulling power" of stars like Cumberbatch has its place in cinema (rightly or wrongly) but this was a film about Whitey and the focus should have been on his story. These two issues served to stir you back into reality every now and again and the story (which I'll come to) lost its grasp on you.
The story. I mean it is what it is right? Whitey was a gangster, loved by most of his community, made a pact with the FBI, fell out of favour with the FBI, went on the run, got caught. There's not much variation to work with; but the film was crying out for a big scene or a middle or an end. There were none. In fact I was so surprised that the end of the film arrived that I double checked that people were leaving. It was almost as if production went sh*t - lets end here. There was nothing about his life on the run; nothing about the fates of the major characters (other than the text on screen); the film demanded that. We got no "fall from grace" and hardship. Instead we got high life, trouble with the law, the end.
That said, Jonny Depp's performance (prosthetics aside) was fantastic though I wouldn't rank this alongside The Departed, Goodfellas, Godfather etc...