LuckyWill"The Departed" Film Review
October 16th 2006 01:27
Aggressive and off-putting, The Departed doesn’t pull any punches in terms of story-telling, dialogue and atmosphere. It’s rough, edgy and unsentimental. At its heart however is a prickly charm and a quality film that provokes and distracts with its fast pace and uncompromising style.
Centering on two police cadets from the Boston Police Department (Matt Damon and Leonardo Dicaprio) it focuses on the very different paths each must face to ultimately get to the same goal. Interestingly, its their history or who they’ve associated with that forces the police department into assessing their probability of graduation not as a good cop, but just a cop. Additionally, heritage or who your father was also contributes to what you’re presumedly going to be like in an ‘apple doesn’t fall far from the tree’ understanding. Unfortunately for one cadet, his history is littered with a family of petty crime and abusively is questioned by Dignam on why he’s trying to act like a policeman. The scene is hard to watch as the cadet is almost reduced to tears from a barrage of verbal attacks from the department, while he has to remain composed and answer as best he can. While for the other cadet of similar grades, his ascendance into the department is opposingly smooth due to lack of suspicion.
It’s the constant and growing unease that exerts the powerful performances in the film. Even the supporting roles are squeezed for results from being forcefully pushed into intensity. Mark Wahlberg is excellent as the thinking mans tough guy, Alec Baldwin was skillfully casted as the funny mans tough guy while even “West Wing” president Martin Sheen barely copes to keep up with the pace as the older officer just trying to get the job done amidst all the tension. Leonardo Dicaprio is permanently affixed with anguish and despair at the unfolding elements in the script, painfully seen on his expression. Matt Damon elevates his performance past that of the recent Bourne series to foster a new direction of seeing a good actor handling a complex role. Mixing elements of “The Recruit”, “Gangs of New York” and “Heat”; Martin Scorsese has delivered a stunning film that evokes and provokes. It’s uncompromising and brutal, vivid and alive yet very few do make it out intact and owing to realism of a energized realistic background, this is the way it should be.
4 starz
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wikipedia.org
scorsesefilms.com
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Comment by Cibbuano
Hunt Famous
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Comment by Stanley
Comment by Justin
Nah, both actors did their part respectfully well. Damon and Dicaprio were both convincing. Damon played a more 3-dimensional character Bourne version of himself and Dicaprio played a "Gangs of New York" persona, but was believable. I thought everyone acted very well and the casting was brilliant.
I'm really eager to see "Internal Affairs" now.
Comment by Justin
I agree 110%. And in turn it really elevates the film into being a powerhouse production.
Haven't seen "Children of Men". Let me know what it's like. I've heard zip all about it so far.
Comment by Anonymous
http://firstcitydelhi.blogspot.com/2006/11/shipping-up-to-boston-why-i-cant-stop.html
Comment by Sword Serenity
A Female Gamer
Actually, the title is "Infernal Affairs", not Internal (though I thought Infernal may have been a typo/translation error at one point.
I haven't seen The Departed, though I have seen Infernal Affairs. Let me know what you think of the latter. From reading about The Departed and hearing all about it (including ending) from someone who's seen it, it seems like they've kept some things pretty similar, but changed some major things -- particularly near the end. I quite liked the intrigue present in the movie and the way the character interaction played out.