Finally!

Rating: 9/10 (12 November 2006)

Finally, Martin Scorsese returns to the gritty underworld of crime in the United States. After "Casino", he left it - for whatever reason - and made a few bombs, followed by "Gangs of New York" and "The Aviator." One could say that after so many years away from the crime underworld (over 10) Scorsese could have lost his touch. This is just not so. The camera flies around just like in "Goodfellas" and keeps us on the edge of our seat for the two-and-a-half-hour run time. The violence, Scorsese's trademark for so many years, is kept in check by the director up until the bloody end - and that's not a British-ism; it's quite gruesome at the end. Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio are superb as the rat of Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) and the rat of the Boston PD inside Costello's crew, respectively. The plot is simple, but through his mastery of the camera, Scorsese keeps us interested and engaged. William Monahan's script is simple, but relatively well-done (this is only his second produced screenplay; his first was "Kingdom of Heaven.") The supporting cast is excellent; Martin Sheen plays a high-ranking official in the Boston PD, Mark Whalberg plays his slight subordinate (Whalberg's Dingam is a real prick, but ultimately, a hero - kind of), Alec Baldwin plays the head of the Special Investigations Unit, who's tracking Costello (Costello's mole is within the Unit.) Scorsese has brought us back to the American crime underworld, and it is a journey that makes us realize: films like these are why we go to the movies in the first place.