Review: The Departed

Fifteen months after seeing The Departed at the theatre with daughter Tammy, I watched it a second time, thanks to the magic of DVDs. I'd say that I enjoyed it slightly more on the return trip, although overall my reaction was about the same. Here are my thoughts from November 2006 before I add to them:

"I'm not a big Martin Scorcese fan, as I've had mixed results with his movies. Among his films that I've enjoyed are Taxi Driver, King of Comedy and The Last Temptation of Christ; but on the negative side of the ledger are Raging Bull, Casino, and The Aviator. And since I generally don't like gangster movies, I've never even tried Goodfellas. So I'd say I'm somewhere in the middle on Scorcese, in general.

I'd heard that The Departed was essentially a remake of another film I hadn't seen, Infernal Affairs. But the film it reminded me of was No Way Out. Both stories involve the search for a mole within an organization, although there are actually two moles in The Departed. In each film, the key element of suspense revolves around the question of whether the traitor will be found, and if so, how? In No Way Out, leading man Kevin Costner is put in charge of the search, and a series of coincidences and poor decisions by him make it apparent that he may in fact implicate himself as the mole, although the actual identity of his quarry isn't revealed until the end of the film (and I'm not about to spoil it here).

In The Departed, we know from the get-go that Matt Damon is a crooked cop on the payroll of big-time badguy Jack Nicholson, while state trooper Leonardo DiCaprio is sent into Nicholson's organization early on to infiltrate it on behalf of the staties. Once again, though, the coincidences start to show up as they had in the other film. For example, both men fall for the same woman, despite the fact that the two moles don't know each other. The plot also asks us to believe that she'd be attracted to two such different personalities, out of all the men she meets in the course of her day. They learn of each other's existence around the same time, but of course don't know who is who. They each use cellphones to check in with their real employers, and yet manage to shield that fact at every turn, even to the point of DiCaprio text messaging the cops while sitting the back set of Nicholson's car while it speeds to their destination. Similarly, Damon sends off a warning text message from the midst of a big gathering of cops in a crowded room just as they're about to catch Nicholson red-handed in a criminal act. In other words, lots of symmetry around the two leads, which frankly stretched my credibility a little bit.

But overall it was a very compelling story, and moved along at an impressive clip. Tammy pointed out the movie was almost 3 hours long (a little more than 2.5 hrs, actually, at 152 mins according to IMDB) but it certainly didn't seem to drag at any point. Most of the acting was first-rate, even DiCaprio who I normally don't like. I thought Damon basically just re-cycled the same smart-ass character he put on the screen in Good Will Hunting, but that may just be me (I didn't like that character then; and I didn't like him here). Nicholson was fun to watch, as he almost always is.

The final several minutes were a bit much, with too many dramatic events happening machine gun-like, one after another. The audience we saw it with laughed out loud at one scene that was clearly not supposed to be funny (people died). I think that was just a reaction to the over-the-top nature of the final act. It didn't seem to be of the same high quality as the rest of the story.

I expect any Scorsese fan will love The Departed. Others will likely enjoy the suspense and top-notch acting, may be put off a bit by some of the violence, and will find the ending a bit of a let-down. But I doubt they'll be bored!"

The coincidences actually bothered me a bit more this time around, as so many of the events seems to rely on the symmetry between the two young lead roles and there's really no plot-supported reason for it. The reveal at the end, of a second mole within the police force, also seems to come out of left field.

So why did I enjoy it more than the first time I saw it? Well, I could appreciate the acting more now that I wasn't having to work so hard to follow the twists and turns of The Departed. Martin Sheen and Alec Baldwin, in particular, really shine in their supporting roles. It really is an ensemble piece, and every one of them stepped up and delivered solid performances.

Rating: *** 1/2