Outstanding Performances All Around,

Rating: 9/10 (31 December 2013)

The Departed is a brilliant movie with a very well developed storyline and a fantastic cast. Martin Scorsese hits it out of the park once again in one of his most impressive movies to date, it combines all the aspects of film that he is fantastic at directing, character development, action and strong dialogue based scenes, it all comes together to make an instant classic, he may have done gangster and mob films before, but this film stands out as very original and intriguing two and a half hours. My only real criticism for the film would be that it focuses on Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio's characters too much, I understand that they are the main characters, but there were many other terrific characters that were left feeling underdeveloped, particularly Frank Costello and Dignam, they were both the most engrossing characters, mainly because of their outstanding portrayals from Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg, and I would have loved to have seen more from them. The performances in this film are outstanding, there isn't a single example of poor or mediocre acting here, everyone gives it there all, the film isn't really driven by one character, it's driven by many and thankfully everyone knew what they were doing. Intense, very well acted and engrossing, I would recommend the Departed to anyone looking for a good drama or crime film.
After two cops working for both the police force and an Irish mob gang learn they are in the presence of a rat, they race to track down one another.
Best Performance: Jack Nicholson