It really deserves a spot among the best crime flicks.

Rating: 8/10 (7 November 2006)

I heard this film is allegedly a remake of a Hong Kong film called Mou gaan dou, which I sadly haven't seen before this one. That fact takes off a lot of the originality that The Departed would have poses if it hadn't been a remake. So I'll try to take that in consideration. But since it's a Scorsese flick I spent a little more time comparing it to his (still) better crime-drama, Goodfellas. In my opinion, just because of the pure chronology, considering that Goodfellas was made about sixteen years before The Departed, that alone makes it a more original piece of the crime world.
Let's face it. The crime genre is by now a pretty well investigated universe. I'm not thinking just about films, but tens of TV series as well. So in sense of originality, The Departed does come a little short. However, the cast, the performances and the entire realization of the project are quite a different story.
These are probably DiCaprio's and Damon's toughest roles yet. I've read one review of the film in the papers so far, and the critic described them as 'eternal boys', that just couldn't fully pull it off. But I think he was wrong, because the film doesn't rely that much on their brutality. Instead we really get a view into an intense struggle on two opposite fronts. I think most of the beauty of the film lies within Costigan's and Sullivan's insecurity and unawareness of who's who in this game. It kind of feels like good old fashioned voyeurism, since we are the ones that see it all from a bird's-eye view. And along with the story, the characters just get more and more corrupt.
I would say that this one does deserve a good spot on the chart of best crime films in recent years. The only problem I see in it is that it doesn't appear to be that quite fresh. Like I've said the crime genre is already very well worked and tested. But if you take all the attributes into account I think it's very worthy to spend two and a half hours of time on it.
........ +4/5 ........