Film Review - The Departed

Went to see "The Departed" with a friend last night. I'm not sure how this film slipped past my radar -- we caught it at the Moviedome, our local cheap-seat last-gasp-before-video theatre. It was amazing, the critics praised it, and it got high ratings from the public.

Martin Scorsese directs this remake of a Hong King film "Infernal Affairs" in a way that invokes Shakespearean pathos & Wagnerian drama, using violence instead of dance as his medium. Matt Damon plays a slime ball rat within a police special investigation unit. Leonardo DiCaprio remembers how to act for this film and plays a conflicted undercover police officer within the Irish mob.

Jack Nicholson reprieves his role as a drug-addled crazy person. I wonder how it is that he plays nut jobs so convincingly and makes them so likable even while he's up to his elbows in blood? I think it's his face. If you ever see the scene where he's describing a rat, you'll know what I mean.

Many critics complain about too much violence, by which I expect they mean the blood & brains being liberally splattered on and around everybody in every second scene. Disconcerting as these are and as they are meant to be, Scorcese does have an obsession with authenticity. Even if it includes realistic portrayal of gun-shot wounds. This obsession also shows up in Damon & Dicaprio's pre-movie training (Damon even went along on a drug raid, much to the producers consternation), and the attention to detail in the portrayal of the Boston police. Not only the physical detail of the uniforms, procedure, and ritual, but also in the emotions, attitudes, and commitment required to be a police officer.

What it means to the movie audience is a submersion in that world, without the distraction of noticing where a film-maker screwed up. Instead, we get to pay attention to the characters, feel what they feel, and have authentic emotional reactions to and understanding of the protagonists. This makes it a great movie, which is definitely going on my 'buy' list.