As you might remember, I live in Boston. You may not know that I have worked in Boston politics on occasion. To not go see this movie and have an opinion on the accents therein would prevent me from working in Boston politics ever again.

This is the story of James Whitey Bulger, leader of the Winter Hill Gang, which essentially ran the Boston criminal world in the 70s and 80s. He got away with as much as he did because he was (sort of) working with the FBI, and the FBI was covering for him and nudging any investigation away.  Bulger went into hiding in 1994, and spent 12 years on the FBI’s Most Wanted List until he was captured in 2011. (That was a DAY here, let me tell you.)

He was convicted on 31 charges including but not limited to racketeering, money laundering, extortion, weapons, and being involved with 11 murders, and is now serving 2 consecutive life terms in federal prison.

This movie is based on the book Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob by Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill (a staple that was always in stock in my downtown Boston Borders).  I haven’t read the book, so I can’t tell you how accurate the movie is to the actual events, and everything after this point is based on the movie, not reality.

FBI Agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) is a local boy who’s come home to Boston to clean up the streets and get the Italian mafia out of Boston. One of his friends growing up is a reasonably small time thug operating out of Southie, Jimmy Bulger (Johnny Depp).  Jimmy’s brother Billy (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a State Senator (and eventual President of the Massachusetts Senate), so basically the boys went into three of the four stereotypical professions available for kids from Southie- crime, law enforcement, and politics (the other is the Church).

Jimmy is working his way up, but in Southie, not the rest of Boston, until the FBI needs a little help to get rid of the Italian mafia. Eventually, Jimmy agrees to be an informant, and Connolly finds himself covering for more and more of Jimmy’s criminal enterprises, until he’s in so deep there’s no getting out.

One of the problems of doing a movie on real life events is that real life doesn’t follow an act structure, and real life doesn’t worry about pacing issues. Keep to the script written by the universe, and your movie will drag. I suspect that Scott Cooper was hewing closer to the line of accuracy, and that’s why things draaaaaged. The pacing wasn’t great.

The performances, however, were all great. Johnny Depp is really gunning for an Oscar nomination (and is likely to get one) as Jimmy- the makeup is some uncanny valley shit and really quite alarming, and the eyes….

Bulger has blue eyes, Depp has brown. They used contacts (I think) to make Depp’s eyes blue, and it comes off as really dead-eyed.

Maybe that’s what they were going for- this exceptionally violent and vicious man with scary dead eyes, but to me it was like he was a zombie or a fish. Really, if your actor doesn’t have the right eye color for your character, just roll with it.

Joel Edgerton as John Connolly was REALLY good, and the real center of the movie. Bulger is a plot locomotive- just barrelling through and doing his thing, while the moral dilemmas all centered on Connolly. He started off with the intention of saving Boston from the mob, and bit by bit, decision by decision, ended up facilitating the rise of the Winter Hill Gang and Bulger taking over everything. He’s like the frog being slowly boiled alive before he realized what his decisions have lead him to.

We’ve seen a lot of stories about the local kid who comes home as the law to clean up his home, but the strain of the decisions Connolly made all wear on his face, in part because he knew what he was doing. At some point, the balance between the bad guys he wanted to get and the bad guy he was protecting flipped, and there’s only so long that house of cards can stay up.

I’d give Edgerton a nomination over Depp, to be honest.

There’s very few women in the movie- Bulger’s partner/not-wife played by Dakota Johnson, and Connolly wife (Julianne Nicholson, who’s accent was great, but she is from Medford, Massachusetts) who had the job of mostly looking at Connolly and going “What are you doing?” There’s a great scene where Bulger threatens her by not-threatening her, and instead of making the scene about him, director Scott Cooper holds the shot on her face, making it about her fear and terror of this man that she knows is dangerous and her husband has let into her house, and there’s nothing she can do about it. Well played by everyone involved.

Accents: the Boston accent isn’t easy, and the flavor of a Southie accent is different from one even a few towns over. Depp’s accent is pretty good, and even where there’s a few sounds that don’t work, he’s got the rhythm of the Southie dialect down for the most part. The key when you’re doing a movie set in Boston is that people don’t all have the same accent, and they don’t have it to same degree. You can’t lean on the obvious words, like “cah” or “beah” (car and beer).  Cumberbatch’s accent is just… he had his first line, and both of my roommates went, “No.” Girl!Roommate described it thus: “He sounds like he just had dental surgery and doesn’t recognize the contours of his own mouth.” Now, Billy Bulger does do a Boston politician mumble, but not like that.  Not like that.

(NB: Anyone who tells you that no one in Boston has a Boston accent is someone who hangs out with people who are either not from Boston originally or are upper and middle class white people from specific areas. My roommates are both born and raised in the Boston area, and Girl!Roommate has an accent that she’s gone to some trouble to smooth out, and it tends to come out a bit when she’s tired or angry. Dude!Roommate generally doesn’t. Go and talk to blue collar people in Dorchester or Southie or Revere or anywhere though, and you’ll hear all sorts of variations on it. There have been times when I’ve been a half second behind in a conversation because my brain is busy translating what’s being said. The Boston accent is a beautiful and varied thing, and it’s one of the most difficult to imitate.)

This movie has flaws, and it has high points. It’s incredibly violent, and not kind to anyone who chose to get involved in Bulger’s orbit. It doesn’t romanticize Bulger or his actions, and doesn’t pull any punches (or gun shots or strangulations or stabbings) on the damage Bulger and his gang (and by extension the actions of the FBI in enabling him) did to Boston, and that’s not a small thing. The performances are powerful, and to bring to life a dramatization of a real story is a difficult goal that this film for the most part pulled off.

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Black Mass is in theatres now, and you can find tickets (US) at Fandango and Moviefone.