It could make a psychiatrist's head explode!

Rating: 7/10 (15 March 2012)

I realize that "The Departed" won four Oscars (one for Best Picture and one for Best Director and one for writing). I know that it has a HUGE overall rating on IMDb. I know it's a very popular movie. BUT, the film simply didn't do its homework when it comes to some of the characters. And, because of this, I was not especially impressed by the film. Now before you slam my review with another NOT HELPFUL, hear me out....
Had the writers cared about consistency and believability, they would have cared about the only major female character in the film. However, she was a caricature--a lady with zero believability...NONE. While it's true that films often get psychologists, psychiatrists and counselors wrong, this is among the very worst cases. While she's described as a counselor, she prescribes medications (that's illegal by the way--only an MD can do that). And, personal boundaries mean absolutely nothing to her...nothing. Here we have yet another case where a supposed professional begins sleeping with one of her patients--and one of the most screwed up ones at that! There is no reason to believe this relationship--there is no chemistry and he clearly is a mess...so she sleeps with him!! Why can't a film show a mental health worker who isn't crazy? Does some Tom Cruise write all the roles for psychotherapists in movies?! How can anyone believe her character in any way?! How does this bad writing get rewarded with all these Oscars? To me, an Oscar implies perfection...or at least near perfection...and this is not it.
By the way, since I am on a tirade, I am also irritated that the main baddie is called 'Frank Costello' (Jack Nicholson). Why pick this name since the real life Costello was a HUGE figure in the underworld and bore little semblance to the guy in the film (who is more like Whitey Bulger, by the way)? What not give him some totally fictional name? Why, if he's so much like Bulger, does his fate have nothing to do with Bulger's? I don't get it.
Now I am NOT saying it's a terrible film or I hate it. It's just flawed. So, despite Leonardo DiCaprio's wonderful performance and a taut script, it is a film that didn't really seem good enough to have received all these accolades.