Very good - but not very Goodfellas

Rating: 8/10 (3 April 2007)

The Departed is a slow-burning simmering thriller, a tale steeped in deception, and gently, expertly brought to the boil - until a slightly overcooked finish leaving a slightly unsatisfying taste in the mouth.
Martin Scorsese's latest is a very well told story by one of the greatest directors of all time, and while the Departed does show exactly why the great man is so highly thought of, it also hints that perhaps he is not quite at the peak of his powers anymore.
The film is good, indeed it is very good, but the Oscars for best picture and director feel more like an apology from the Academy for overlooking Raging Bull, and particularly Goodfellas, rather than just recognition for this film. Yes, nobody does gangster films like Scorsese (unless Coppola wants to continue his Godfather saga), but while many directors would be proud to have 'The Departed' in their filmography, Goodfellas was far superior. The dialogue was sharper, the acting crisper, and the story more flowing.
Yet the Departed remains an enjoyable film. Largely the feeling of two parallel intertwining stories feels very effective, with both Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio providing a great deal of conflict in bringing their lead characters to life. Both are all contradictions - Damon is the cop who is a mole for the mob, and is smooth, charming, but yet somehow slightly bland, whilst DiCaprio as the man from the wrong side of the tracks handpicked for a special undercover assignment as a mole within the mob is a violent thug with a turbulent past but desperate to get his job done. With so much deception, you are never sure who knows what, and, rather appropriately, you feel like rats in a maze. And Scorsese does expertly time the reveals of information and keeps you guessing - but yet something about it feels ever so slightly underwhelming. However the action does heat up nicely towards the final third, with an interesting homage to the original by the use of a scene in Chinatown in Boston, creating some genuine edge-of-the-seat moments, until a rather unexpected conclusion that slightly jars against what has gone before.
The acting however is uniformly excellent. One thing that can be said for Scorsese is that he sure can get the best out of DiCaprio, who here produces work to rival that of his portrayal of Amsterdam in Gangs of New York - another Scorsese picture. Damon however seems to be slightly lacking in charisma, although that does not provide a tremendous problem here. But it is the supporting actors who really steal the show. Jack Nicholson as the crime lord produces an atypically restrained performance - never overacting, and producing a quietly menacing performance, relying on his natural gravitas to still fill the screen whenever he is on it. Martin Sheen is as ever a class act, but the show-stealers are Mark Wahlberg as the intensely unlikeable but committed handler, and Alec Baldwin, who is given precious little screen time, but certainly makes the most of his scenes without scenery-chewing antics like those seen in Glengarry Glen Ross.
Overall, while this is a worthy addition to the Scorsese canon, the unsatisfactory conclusion and some of the slightly unsatisfying reveals make this feel a somewhat inferior cousin to Goodfellas, rather than a true companion. Yet any other director would be proud of this work, and rightly so, as there is a great deal to take pleasure from. Maybe Scorsese just set his own standards too high for anyone, including himself, to live up to.