Best Film of the Decade

Rating: 10/10 (13 October 2006)

24 hours after seeing 'The Departed' I still can't stop thinking about it. In a long lifetime of movie-going, I have seldom been as exhilarated, as excited, as palm- sweatingly gripped as I was by this film. Every scene contributes to our understanding of the complex plot which drives inexorably towards its electrifying conclusion.This must be Martin Scorses's masterpiece. Maybe at last he will get his Best Director and Best Film Oscars; since there are no gay cowboys in the story, there's a chance. I would similarly award William Monaghan for his cracking script and among the acting contenders who would have thought that in a film of magnificent performances di Caprio would be up there in front? At last the bum-numbingly boring 'Titanic' can be quietly forgotten. Jack Nicholson does his familiar mad psycho shtick, but nobody does it better and at his age it's probably his last (grand)stand. He has most of the smart lines, but Mark Wahlberg is a close second. Go and see the movie of the decade.