Scorsese is back

Rating: 8/10 (1 December 2006)

Martin Scorsese and his wonderful editor Thelma Schoonmaker, certainly know how to open a film. The degree of visual energy and panache in the first twenty minutes of The Departed is absolutely glorious, beautifully thrilling. I wish I could say the same of the rest of the movie, which, while enormously entertaining, has so many twists and turns, and is so long that after a while one would like to get off the fun ride. It is extremely violent and as happens with all movies that depend on intrincate plots, at a certain point one asks very logical questions of things that are not happening but should. Such as "how is it possible that the Irish mafiosi controlled by a fun, over the top Jack Nicholson haven't figured out by now who the rat is"? The Departed is delightful because everybody in it is a pro: Nicholson goes to town hamming it up, but his relish is contagious and he is wonderful. Matt Damon is extremely fine as a cold, professional, ruthless villain. I'm glad he was cast against type. Di Caprio is quite good as his counterpart, a mole in the mafia. And the rest are adorable pros: my beloved Ray Winstone, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin, and even Mark Wahlberg, trying real hard to come up with the goods and acquitting himself nicely. The Departed touches upon recurrent themes in Scorsese's work: true morality, human hypocrisy, the corruption of the soul, how easy it is for evil to run rampant in this world, how very f***d up is human nature. The movie, as entertaining as it is, has substance, and is the best thing Scorsese has done in years. The one weak link I found was the subplot with the female shrink, played, not too convincingly in my opinion, by Vera Farmiga. She falls in love with both Damon and DiCaprio and to me that's already gilding the lily. Still, if you want to see what a master of movie making can do, run to The Departed and enjoy the mayhem. One big nitpick: too much rock and roll music in every scene.