Great names, but a great film....?

Rating: 5/10 (19 February 2007)

The Departed starts of very promising, but along the way the film loses momentum and credibility. It's a great Hong Kong flick. Why? Because you know it's a comic book, it's not real life. Like the old film noirs from the 40's and 50's: you know you are not looking at real life, but at one dimensional cardboards. And thats great fun!
But it's not a great Hollywood flick. Because it tries to add realism to a not so realistic story. The dialogue is very good, but the actions taken by it's characters (who are one dimensional) are a mysteries. If you present it real, you have to explain. If you present it as entertainment, you don't have too. That the main weakness of The Departed for me. Also, it's not a Scorcese picture. It's a bland film, that could have been made by almost any TV director. The actors are great and work with some fantastic dialogue, although Matt Damon and Mark Walhberg really can't act and should stay doing action films. The crew delivers top notch work, but for me: it still doesn't work.
It feels to convulted and I have the feeling that (even though the film runs at 2 1/2 hours) most character motivation was left on the cutting room floor.