His thinning blonde hair is slicked back on his balding head. The teeth, much like his soul, are decaying. From behind a pair of creepy contact lens, the piercing blue eyes stare at you with a restless energy. The look is almost alien in nature, and it leaves you feeling very uncomfortable. This is one of the most recognisable actors in the world looking almost unrecognisable. It is Johnny Depp, and after years of entertaining us (and cashing in paychecks) with offbeat roles in quirky films such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Alice in Wonderland and The Lone Ranger, he is in a serious role in a seriously disturbing character film.

Depp plays real life Irish-American mobster Whitey Bulger, who at one time was the crime leader of the Boston-based Winter Hill Gang. Indicted for 19 murders, the career criminal was involved in racketeering, extortion, money laundering and more.

In all his unpleasantness, Whitey is portrayed in a terrifically energetic and unnerving performance by Depp, who steals every scene he is in.

One of the most memorable of these scenes in Black Mass is where Whitey has been invited over for grilled steaks by John Connolly (Joel Edgerton), an FBI agent and friend who had earlier convinced the mobster to become an informant for his own protection from rival gangs. At the house also is John Morris (David Harbour), Connolly’s loyal coworker, who has prepared a delicious sauce. Whitey is so impressed with the marinade that he must have the recipe. But he can’t coax it out of Morris so easily. After all, it is a family secret. Finally, when Morris reluctantly gives in, Whitey is far from pleased. In a chilling voice he hisses, “You spill the secret family recipe today, maybe you spill a little something about me tomorrow.”

The secret to this familiar steak is all in the exceptional marinade

It is a moment reminiscent to a similar scene from Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas. Like the legendary director’s classic gangster film, Black Mass is packed from end to end with fine performances delivered by its ensemble cast. This includes Rory Cochrane (Stephen Flemmi) as Whitey’s lieutenant, Benedict Cumberbatch as Whitey’s brother (William), Kevin Bacon (FBI boss Charles McGuire) and Dakota Johnson who plays Whitey’s wife (Lindsey Cyr) amongst others. Worryingly enough, Whitey’s wife is last seen in the film after pleading with her husband to let her mercy-kill their six-year-old child after he is left brain dead from an allergic reaction.

Black Mass is a fairly violent film, featuring some horrific scenes of pure business-like torture and murder. More than the blood, it is the methodical nature of the hits that I find chilling. Certainly, director Scott Cooper has a flair for dark visuals.

The film is based on the book, Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob, and in terms of narrative, is a fairly by the numbers mob story. In fact, aside from how the FBI looks the other way while Whitey takes advantage of their arrangement to eliminate the competition, eventually going out of control in a crazed bloodlust, the storytelling follows a similar pattern to most gangster films. Thankfully, the secret to this familiar steak is all in the exceptional marinade.

Rated R for brutal violence, language, some explicit references and brief drug use

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine October 18th , 2015

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