Johnny Depp disappears into the role of real-life gangster Whitey Bulger — receding hairline and icy blue eyes abetted by vocal fry and a sour sneer compounded from equal parts rodent and snake. But the real story here is FBI agent John Connolly (a beefy Joel Edgerton), who gets the bright idea of teaming up with his old pal from the neighborhood (Southie!) in an effort to bring down the baddies with vowels at the end of their surnames. What starts out as a daring bid for rapid advancement quickly turns — surprise! — into a morally murky and decidedly one-way relationship, with Connolly forever seeking to justify a primal allegiance to his native tribe and its crazypants chief. Depp puts on a good show, but the movie doesn't really move. It's just Whitey doing evil, often violent things, and various narrators explaining those evil, often violent things, and Connolly ignoring those evil, often violent things. Until suddenly, it all starts to unravel. (One character complains that a vise is closing in, but durned if the viewer senses any gradual increase in pressure.) Southie looks appropriately dingy, and everyone has fun trying on a Boston accent, especially Benedict Cumberbatch as Whitey's brother the State Senator. But it would have been worthwhile to spend less time on strangling and more on the mechanics of both FBI-protected gang life and FBI-conducted investigation. Scott Cooper (Out of the Furnace) directs. (2015) — Matthew Lickona
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