above average crime thriller let down by weak ending

Rating: 7/10 (22 October 2006)

I saw this film a couple of nights ago and wanted to review it straight away. It was only then I realised it was a remake so I held off till I could see the original.
To start with, the acting is excellent. DiCaprio ,perceived early in his career as the teen-girl favourite, now has genuine presence and character. I started appreciating Matt Damon since his incredible performances as Jason Bourne, where he plays an action hero with genuine emotions. They were on par with the original leads; Nicholson was better than IA's Sam and the shrink made a much better contribution that the shrink and girlfriend together in the original.
Mark Wahlberg was entertaining as Sheen's sidekick but devalued from him and ruined the symmetry. There are two bosses and two protégées. Each of the protégées appears to be working for one but is actually with the other. This is much cleaner in the original. In the departed sheen is the join operator of DiCaprio and is the superior but not the boss of Damon.
The length of the remake allowed for better character development and better explanation of events. There was more time to develop the relationships between the leads and the shrink. The critical scenes were less rushed.
I was disappointed by the ending of the remake, in a meaningless blood splat. In the original, the bad mole gradually feels tormented by his actions, especially after sheen's death. He kills Sam in order to start a new life. I believe he would have let the good mole live and brought him back to the police force if it wasn't for the fact that DiCaprio saw the envelope. in the original, Damon is saved by the second mole. Damon terminates him so that he can continue his new life and salutes his counterpart at the funeral. In the remake, Damon is just pure bad and is cleaned up at the end by wahlberg, who reenters the film as abruptly as he left it after sheen's death.
In both films, the death of all (or almost all) the central characters prevents the realisation by the bosses of who the moles were.
There were also a couple of clues prior to the envelope about the identity of the moles. After their telephone call, Damon knew the moles voice and could have worked out who he was ( he certainly didn't sound like frenchy or ray winstone). there was a scene where Nicholson demands the tail car be pulled off and it happens straight away; at that point it is obvious that if you find the cop who gave that order you find the mole.