Black Mass isn't a black mark on anyone's career, but I had hoped the film would be more dramatically satisfying. The film lacks a clear dramatic arc, leaving the characters to continue doing pretty much what they have been doing during the period shown on screen (primarily the 1970s-1980s). They do not become better or worse people, whether they suffer tragedy or gain success. In this film, Benedict Cumberbatch becomes politician Billy Bulger, younger brother of career criminal Jimmy "Whitey" Bulger (Johnny Depp), who enters an alliance with FBI agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton).
To say that Cumberbatch consistently plays a politician isn't a negative assessment of his performance. His character, undoubtedly like real-life former senator Billy Bulger, knows how to smile while sizing up those around him and smoothly steering conversations to his advantage. As Boston news station WBUR noted in a June 2013 article, "Whitey and Billy: A Tale of Two Boston Brothers," Billy Bulger was "a master at the exercise of political power"—and that is exactly the way Cumberbatch portrays him.
Bulger smiles benignly at John Connolly, the former kid from South Boston who "made good" as an FBI agent, as the two sip drinks in an exclusive setting. Connolly jokes that he doesn't know what to call the senator, whether he can still refer to him as Billy. Bulger repays the compliment in kind by praising Connolly's status in the FBI, but his eyes indicate that he knows exactly where Connolly's familiar flattery is leading.
During lunch, when Connolly pitches an alliance between the FBI and the Bulger brothers, especially with Jimmy, Cumberbatch's Billy is a master of deflection, and he never raises his voice. Always the politician aware that he is being watched in public places, Bulger deftly turns Connolly away and states decisively (as fans have seen in the trailer) that "Jimmy’s business is Jimmy’s business."
Whether Billy Bulger is strutting down the street in the St. Patrick's Day Parade, brilliantly concluding a rousing speech to his Irish constituents, or sitting at the head of the table at a family Christmas dinner, he always appears solicitous, congenial, and calm—the perfect combination for the man who would sit at the head of the Massachusetts State Senate longer than anyone to date.
If not for one brief scene and a couple of lines not key to the plot, Cumberbatch's performance might seem one note (like many of the supporting actors' in this Depp-driven vehicle). While the Bulger brothers' mother soundly beats Jimmy at cards (he fondly calls her out for cheating), aproned Billy cooks dinner. Just as he brings the meal to the table, Mrs. Bulger relates a grotesque story about a woman, a few streets over, whose body had been found in her home weeks after her death. Her graphic description grosses out Billy, who protests his mother's anecdote just as they're ready to eat. In this brief moment, Billy becomes a real person instead of the façade of placid politician. In the family home, sitting down to dinner with his brother and mother, Billy can be himself. He can complain to his mother and wrinkle his nose at the inappropriate conversation while sarcastically asking if everyone now wants to eat.
I was glad for this scene, because it indicates that, among whatever else was filmed and later trimmed from the two-hour film, something of Cumberbatch's portrayal that is real and unexpected makes it to the final cut. Sure, his performance illustrates Billy's political shrewdness and his loyalty to his older brother, but his role is never developed into what might have been an intriguing study of the brothers' rule of the city. As expected, Cumberbatch delivers a good performance (despite fueling debate about the consistency or quality of his accent), but it is not necessarily a highly memorable one. The dinner table scene, however, shows me a different side to Billy Bulger, one that hints that Cumberbatch can do more to show the man behind the façade. He is good with the material he is given, but he is not given all that much to do.
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