See it and you won't be sorry

Rating: 10/10 (6 October 2006)

I just saw it this morning. 10:00am, Upper East Side. Not what I would call a crowded theater, so that was great.
I'm not going to go into the plot or the details, because you've read all the reviews by now.
After about an hour, I said to myself "well this is not so great, what's all the fuss about?" I started to think that everyone is so desperate for a good movie they've gone overboard in its praise. I know that the last two Marty/Leo movies had their fans but they had their detractors, too. Scorsese has been accused of trying too hard to appeal to the Academy, and Leo has as many fans as he has people who cannot stand the sight of him.
At one point it all just came together. I guess you could say it snuck up on me, had an 'accumulative' effect. The last 45 minutes are just remarkable. Its so great to leave a movie with that rare 'I just saw a great movie' feeling. I'm still pretty buzzed from it.
I didn't fell like Jack was just being Jack (playing to his audience, with whom he shares some sort of secret that just they know..WINK WINK), I felt like he created a larger-than-life character who's, of course, memorable as hell. Costello is perfectly suited to his legendary ability, and he delivers, and then some.
The real substance is the contributions by Leo and Matt. Playing two sides of the same coin could not have been easy (how did they know what the other was doing? they rarely are on the screen at the same time) but it goes to Scorsese's skill as a director that they work so well together, even though, like I said, they are almost never together. Once review I read put it perfectly - Leo is fire, Matt is ice. You see all of Leo's turmoil just by looking at his eyes. They show you Billy's soul, his conscience. You do not see Matt's conscience, because he does not have one.
Much as I love and respect "Gangs of New York" and "The Aviator", let's be truthful here..Scorsese is at his very best with this type of thing, and "The Departed" makes that point again and again. Nothing wrong with that either.
A movie like this makes it hard to consider seeing something else. Why would you bother? So don't! I might not be able to go on reading that lousy book I started the other day for a couple of days. The movie really does stay with you. 10/10.