Disappointing

Rating: 5/10 (27 March 2007)

I usually go to the movie theater when a movie is as hyped as this one. It won an academy award and I still didn't see it. After all the awards, praise....I had this sinking feeling that it couldn't possibly live up to all of this. I finally watched it on cable last night and I have to say it didn't.
While this was not a bad film and it was an entertaining story in my opinion it just did not even come close to living up to all the high praise it received. I heard many times people compare this to Goodfellas. The only possible reason I could imagine they'd make that comparison is because of Scorcese, but clearly that is where the comparison ends. Goodfellas was one of the best movies I've ever seen. The Departed? Not so much.
The story centers on two men both graduating from the police academy, one who has a family history of connection to the mob and ends up working for the police as an spy and informant so they could bring down this mob guy, and the other who was groomed from childhood by the same mob guy to get INTO the police department and get high up in the ranks so he could find things out and shield himself from being arrested through tips and information. So both boys are basically informants, one for the cops, the other for the mafia.
It seems to me that the idea is to show "good vs bad". In the beginning of the movie Costello (nicholson, the "bad mafia guy") exclaims; "you can become a cop or work in organized crime. When you're looking down the barrel of a gun what's the difference"? This theme supposedly is to play out during the movie and it is up to us, the audience to figure out what the difference IS. The problem with this movie in my opinion is there WAS no noticble difference between these two characters. They were both young, driven, and dedicated seemingly believing in their cause and the work that they did. They both felt guilt over their secret status. They both were terrified of being found out. Honestly during the course of the movie I found myself getting confused over who's the "good guy" and who's the "bad guy". Everyone double crossed everyone. Everyone was dirty and corrupt, including the police. I'm assuming that we as the audience are to derive the message that good and evil exist in all of us? Not sure. I personally don't like when movies depict the "bad guy" in such an obvious comparison to the "good guy", but here I just was confused about the movies intent.
I thought many of the scenes were completely far fetched and over the top, unbelievable and silly. The problem I have with this movie is that I did not have any feelings for either guy, good, or bad. I had no sympathy for Decaprio, and no disdain for Damon. Who WAS the good guy/bad guy? I thought Nicholoson, who I usually like was playing "the joker".
In all this wasn't a bad movie. It just wasn't great.