Marty and company score with "The Departed"

Rating: 8/10 (10 November 2007)

First of all, "The Departed" is a very good Martin Scorcese film. It is not however, a great Martin Scorcese film. Scorcese does what he does best. Moves the action along, creates powerful, interesting camera shots, gets wonderful performances out of his cast, and beautifully uses rock and roll to score his action. All of this is what we expect in a Scorcese film.
What we do not expect to find in his films is contrived plot twists, sudden, "clean' endings, and sub-plots that do not add up to much. Unfortunately, all of these short comings are found in "The Departed". The message of the film seems to be, that the world is full of rats, be careful. The message is drummed into our heads over and over again. The movie goes on too long, with both the villains and our hero coming unglued too many times. Okay, we get it. Move along.
Standout performances are given by Nicholson, Wahlberg, Damon and especially DiCaprio. Martin Sheen and Alec Baldwin also do a nice job. DiCaprio is a cop who is working undercover on the inside of Nicholson's gang, while Damon, is a cop who is pulling double duty working for Nicholson, and trying to identify the potential mole in their midst.
The story meanders from one killing to another, and shows how in the mob, no one can be trusted, and the extent to which they will try to weed out the moles. It goes on and on until a very unlikely ending comes along. While the rest of the movie was at least interesting, the ending was such a disappointment, that I had been cheated.
Even with that, I would recommend renting this film, just on the basis of the strong performances of the actors.
8 out of 10