Scorsese Gets Back to Basics

Rating: 9/10 (20 October 2006)

Critics and fans alike are hailing "The Departed" as a return to form for director Martin Scorsese, and though I don't exactly know what a return to form is for a director who's made such a list of diverse films, I understand the sentiment.
"The Departed" is not as good as "Taxi Driver" or "Raging Bull," but it is as good, and maybe even better, than "GoodFellas." Like "Fellas," it's fast, brutal and wildly entertaining. But also like "Fellas," it comes off as fairly glib and lacking in the greater psychological or social meaning that made "Taxi Driver" and "Raging Bull" such great films.
It's nearly intolerably exciting at times; I came out of the theatre actually sweating. Scorsese gets terrific work out of his male ensemble (and lone female, Vera Farmiga), especially Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio, who play moles on either side of the cops and robbers divide and end up hunting each other. Scorsese's point, that the line between those that break the law and those that enforce it is hopelessly blurred, is obvious and easy. But the film is so well acted and so technically accomplished that you feel that you're in the presence of greatness, even if the story itself is standard-issue pot boiler stuff.
The ending is somewhat of a let down. It feels like the screenwriter got lazy, and instead of resolving matters in a creative fashion, decides that the best way to tie up loose ends is to kill off virtually the entire cast, with one blow-your-brains-out shot after another. But the overly tidy ending does not diminish the impact of this propulsive, addictively watchable and disturbing film.
Grade: A