Excellent Boston-based thriller

Rating: 8/10 (18 April 2012)

Martin Scorcese won a long overdue best director Oscar for this, his first movie with a plot, and if not entirely deserved the honor was not entirely misguided either. The Departed is a tightly made LITTLE crime/suspense thriller, basically a very good modern film noir (note the use of bled out colors to evoke a noir sensibility) with two strongly drawn drawn main characters driven by contrasting needs and ambitions and nicely creative supporting work by Nicholson especially and Baldwin to a lesser extent. (No kudos for Walberg. The screenplay gave him a unique patter, as baroque as it is foul-mouthed, but the performance is all in the writing. Walberg adds nothing in the way of nuance. Can he spell 'nuance'? One wonders. How does this guy manage to sustain a career? Must have one hell of an agent...) Anyway, the entertaining main story line twists around and around like a caduceus to the point of seeming overly contrived, especially as regards the psychologist character who winds up getting involved with both of the lead characters, one of whom is a patient - a professional no-no, and highly unlikely anyway even if he is Leo Dicaprio. If you can get past some of the more extreme manipulations of the plot, this is a richly enjoyable movie.