Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants, Falling Short Of The Height

Rating: 7/10 (19 November 2006)

The Departed is a film I wanted to fall in love with. Instead, I ended up having a prolonged, non-committal fling with it.
The cop-criminal crossover film genre has an impressive benchmark already, namely De Niro and Pacino in Michael Mann's Heat. Scorsese was brave to tackle similar territory in the first place, although granted The Departed takes a vastly different approach to the subject.
This is not a film that will spoon-feed the audience. Any knowledge of the broad plot before you see the film is a bonus, but be wary of spoilers. One cannot fault either the screenplay, something which treats the audience as intelligent, nor can one grumble about the work Scorsese does, as excellent as ever.
The problem comes in with the cast. Why Scorsese is so hot for Di Caprio is beyond me - I will confess this is the best of the Scorsese-Di Caprio films to date, but still all too often Di Caprio looks just out of place and out of his depth. He just does not have the range nor the appearance to pull off the character he portrays.
Conversley, Matt Damon's boy-next-door appearance works to his advantage in this one. I trust that this film opens up some doors to rather more substantial film parts in the future.
Jack Nicholson is good in this. He does not give "the performance of his lifetime". He does not give "one of his top five performances". He probably has done enough to get a number of "supporting actor" awards here, there and everywhere. If this is Jack symbolically handing over the reins to a new generation of actors, it is a misguided one.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment in the casting area is the lack of use of real gems. Martin Sheen, possibly the best actor in the world today to cast as a head or chief of any Police division, seldom does more than sit at a desk. Mark Wahlberg gives a Grade-A, Boogie Nights level performance that suggests maybe he should have been given one of the two leads, but then again who would play his important part in his absence? Finally, a round of applause for Mr Alec Baldwin - a great, understated delivery of a support role that indicates he has at last matured into one of the leading character actors of this era.
Sigh, Oscar talk. If they give Scorsese awards for this, it will just underline the injustice for him not being given such things for Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and so on. If Stanley Kubrick never got an Oscar for his directing, then no director really needs one for any reason other than a nice ornament.
I find it hard to imagine where, with the cast, crew and director involved, anyone who would want to see this film would trouble themselves with a review beforehand, but if you want an opinion then it is to see the film, but hold no expectations of greatness.