A Film that was So Close and Yet so Far from Perfection.

Rating: 6/10 (16 October 2006)

The only reason I gave this movie a 6 is because of three people. The first two are Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin. They are entertaining, fun, and terrific. Their acting in this film is worth half the price of admission. The other half comes from Leonardo DiCaprio. I truly believe that he is the greatest actor of the last two decades. Morgan Freeman and Russell Crowe give him a run, but he takes the award. He is perfect in this movie. I have to spoil it here by saying that the moment he is eliminated from the film, it is over. The whole thing goes downhill. Scorsese is a great director, and he is great for two hours and fifteen minutes of this film. It is solely the ending that ruins this movie. It is almost as if he quit directing and just said F it and shoot everybody in the head...boom, over, role credits. There are so many things left unanswered in this film. I remember looking over at my brother at the two hour mark and saying, "Wow, this is fantastic." And at the end of the film I looked at him and said, "This is going to upset me the rest of the night." This had all the makings of being the best film I have ever seen, and the ending seriously ruined it. I don't blame Scorsese completely, I truly believe this is the direct relation to horrible screen writing. I could go on forever about how this ending ruined a great movie, but I will focus on the positives. The main positive is Leonardo. I can't stress enough that he is the real deal and deserves a statue soon. He won't get it for this, but I believe he will at some point. Also, the female lead in this..Vera Farmiga...is beautiful and fun to watch, but her character was filled with holes. She is unexplored and yet she is suppose to be important. She is left with an unopened envelope from DiCaprio's character and a baby that we don't know who the father is. Not to mention, she is week at her profession for all the education credits she seems to have. Like I said, I don't understand how such a great movie can have so many holes and a horrible ending. I am not an expert and this is just my opinion, but I hope the DVD releases an alternate ending that explains some things. I would spend the money on the Director's Cut just to find out. We can all hope.