Brilliant, brilliant performances

Rating: 9/10 (14 November 2006)

OK now... I've never been a big Leonardo DiCaprio fan, but I have always believed that he is a brilliant actor. "What's Eating Gilbert Grape", "Gangs of New York", "Catch Me If You Can", "The Aviator" and now "The Departed." All fantastic performances. This might be a bit premature for me to say, but after four Golden Globe nominations with one win, plus two Oscar nominations... come on Academy people, hand over an Oscar to this guy, he deserves it. (Martin Scorcese's is a whole other request... I've given up on that one). He really held his own against an acting powerhouse like Jack Nicholson (who was, of course, great as well). In fact there were times when he actually stole the scene from him. If ever there was a character you sympathised with from the very beginning, it was this guy. And DiCaprio's performance really helped build that feeling.
Matt Damon has been steadily pacing himself as an actor of immense worth as well. His career speaks for itself. Solid performances every time. It was nice to see him play a character like this though. I agree with people here who say he should do this type of role more often. He was believable, it worked.
Martin Sheen was, well, Martin Sheen. Great screen presence.
Alec Baldwin was hilarious. I love the way he just disappears into his characters. He just 'blends in' with the atmosphere created by the scene. Swift, sharp dialogue execution. I love it.
But Mark Wahlberg stole the show for me. He didn't have as much screen time as the others, but man oh man, he just killed it. Brilliant performance. There are times when you wonder whether he's going to be in the next scene just so you can see him again. He stood out in every scene he was in: in the beginning with Sheen and DiCaprio and then later with Nicholson, Baldwin and Damon. I think he's always had this in him, but he really needed a quality film like this (Scorcese being the director has gotta help) to show what he can really do. I was blown away by his performance.
In fact there wasn't a hair out of line in all the performances. We've all been hearing it for weeks and I'll just say it again... this is a superbly-cast movie.
Now with the acting out of the way, let's get to the rest of the movie. It was thrilling, it was suspenseful and it took me a few minutes to get used to the ending, but the longer I thought about it, the more I liked it. I haven't seen "Internal Affairs" so I have no idea how similar this is to that. But I don't like making too many comparisons anyway. This movie stands out quite prominently on its own. A bit of a slow start, but things really heat up after the first hour.
Highly recommended. :-) ****/***** 9/10.