Something was missing for me

Rating: 3/10 (26 November 2006)

"The Departed" is an excellently packaged film. It has great acting, with Nicholson chewing scenery as the villain and both DiCaprio and Damon turning in fine performances. Martin Sheen and Alec Baldwin are standout as well. It had good production values, which you'd expect from a Scorsese vehicle. It had a generally fine script with an excellent premise, dealing with themes of fatherhood, loyalty, etc with lots of suspense and action thrown in. However, somehow all these ingredients didn't add up to a particularly satisfying cinematic experience for me. I felt like a voyeur watching the film unfold. I was never drawn into the story or felt any identification with the characters. I may have been interested in what happened next, but did not really care emotionally. As I was leaving the theater, I overheard someone commenting that the only way anyone could say this was a five star movie was because there were five stars in it. I would have to agree.