Infernally disappointing

Rating: 6/10 (9 November 2006)

A lot of good reviews and positive comments have been made about this movie. Unfortunately I don't think the movie lives up to most of them. Its difficult for me to review this movie without referring to the Hong Kong Super original which is a classic in its own right, Infernal Affairs. The Departed literally takes the exact same storyline and swaps the Chinese Triads with the Irish Boston underworld. The story revolves around to central characters Sullivan (played by the wooden Damon) & Costigan (the awesome Di Caprio) both are having there strings pulled, one by the gangster boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) and the other by the Police Departments undercover chief Quinnin (Martin Sheen). Both characters are effectively "rats" for the bad guys and good guys. The interesting part of the story is when the line between good & bad starts to become blurred and each undercover doesn't know where they stand. This part of the storyline was done with great impact and good characterisation in the Chinese original. As often happens with remakes, re-works or re imaginations upon an original, The Departed doesn't do this too well. In fact it tries to hard to adapt the storyline to suit the American audiences. By throwing in a love interest for both central characters to chase and also have characters like Mark Whalberg's comic police officer (although he does this really well). Its quite funny Scorsese is one of the greatest directors of all time and for him to take an existing storyline and take the good bits and copy them and leave out the excellent bits and replace them with mushy justifiable movie going fare is just a bit of a cop out. Don't get me wrong, for those of you who have never seen or heard of the original or never even knew The departed was even a remake they will probably love this film. But for those of us fortunate enough to have seen the great Infernal Affairs will think what have they done to my classic Hong Kong Thriller. Scorsese films usually have memorable scenes, but I can only think of a few, memorable lines are even more sparse. Where as his classic "Goodfellas" begins with a truly memorable line "As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a gangster". One trait Scorsese keeps from goodfellas, Casino, Gangs of New York is the use of a great soundtrack and The Departed doesn't disappoint with the Boston Irish Bagpipes used to aplomb. It maybe a bit "heavy Metal" but it works well with the theme. The huge collection of quality actors from Jack Nicholson, Ray Winstone, Mark Whalberg, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin all do well but none are a patch on Leonardo and they are all let down by the po faced Matt Damon and his unemotional turn as Sullivan, though it could be argued his character has been so drained of emotion his own life it just adds to the performance. Compared to most of the trash out in the cinemas right now namely "Borat", I'd give the Departed some time if you want to go to the cinema, but to wait for it on DVD isn't a bad thing either. Never thought I'd say that about a Scorsese film but its true.
If you want to see a great performance with a good but not great storyline and have no expectations in comparison to the original then you'll enjoy, what more can I say !