Drawn out mob movie with a few twists

Rating: 4/10 (13 January 2015)

The Departed is loaded with talented actors and I went into it with high expectations. That said, during the last 30 minutes of the movie I just wanted it to end.
It has strong acting, but that's a given considering all the on screen talent. It is too long, the pacing is too slow, and just felt like it was missing something. A lot about the movie felt contrived to me and I left the theater feeling deflated. The love story was predictable, a little weird, and definitely inappropriate considering the characters positions. The film didn't really have a climax, instead there were a series of climactic moments that kept sort of just puttering out and letting me down. The cinematography was boring as well, most of the shots seemed pretty simple and uninteresting. Similarly, the score felt contrived and pedantic. Like some bean counters calculated the songs most likely to impress a 2006 American audience and threw all of them into this film. Overall, I just can't recommend this film to people and I think it is possibly the most overrated film of the decade.