Everything's done right but the movie's no damn good.

Rating: 4/10 (27 January 2007)

The Departed has fine actors (especially Jack Nicholson as the bull goose bad guy), excellent cinematography, and tight direction but all that these things add up to is an empty, soulless shell. That the film may get an Academy Award for best picture makes it hard to maintain a vision of Hollywood that involves anything more than technical proficiency.
In addition to Infernal Affairs, the Hong Kong film that's the apparent source of its plot, The Departed relies heavily on HBO serials. Comparison with The Wire or The Sopranos shows what The Departed lacks. Although the good guy/bad guy similarities resemble those in The Wire, any realistic portrayal of everyday life in a police department or criminal family is absent. In The Departed, a bit of brogue and mutual intimidation by rival psychopaths are all we get.
The consequences of the extreme violence in The Departed never go beyond small groups of gangsters and policemen. To put it mildly, this is not what happens in real life. Although the psychotherapist role may be borrowed from The Sopranos, it's forced into a stereotyped mold. Having a male client see a female therapist becomes a little like the proverbial gun that, when introduced in the first act of a play, must go off by the second. Client and therapist need to be seen in bed together before the movie's over.
The Departed may be worth seeing if you want to learn film technique. Just don't expect anything more than that.