Scorsese Should Have Made His Own Movie

Rating: 7/10 (23 March 2007)

I had massive expectations for THE DEPARTED , a violent mob drama directed by Martin Scorsese the greatest film maker in the world today . After seeing it I did have a slight of feeling of something I have experienced throughout my life - Disappointment
***** SPOILERS ******
The film starts in typical Scorsese style of a sweeping framing sequence with a musical soundtrack by The Rolling Stones similar to the work he did in GOODFELLAS . Unfortunately the director doesn't sustain this and whilst never becoming mediocre we don't see much in the way of what cinematic beauty Scorsese is capable of and in several scenes most notably in the death of Queennan the original film INFERNAL AFFAIRS did it far more better
THE DEPARTED suffers from a very uneven screenplay courtesy of William Monahan . When it's bad it's woeful but when it's good it's great . It should be pointed out however that when it's good it's entirely down to Siu Fia Mak's original script and if you've seen INFERNAL AFFAIRS you'll notice how tight the storytelling was and how loose and cluttered Monahan's adaptation is in comparison . Did we really need a romantic subplot ? And there seems a lack of thought put into Costello . He's spent years as a crime boss so how come it appears it's only now that the Boston police department have come up with the bright idea of putting several moles into Costello's crew ? Are we to seriously believe that Costello is being protected for < Plot revelation that I won't give away > , and just because a tough gangster likes opera that doesn't make him multi layered , it just makes him clichéd and unconvincing . Most ridiculous scene is where Costello meets his police mole in the cinema . If it's a clandestine meeting then why does Costello draw attention to himself by grunting and pulling out his penis ? Possibly the most stupid sequence I've ever seen in a Scorsese film
There's been many other criticisms of this movie , a movie that seems to have split the critics right down the middle . One is the cast . I do think DiCaprio is a much better actor than what he's given credit for but I was never entirely convinced when he has to dish out violence . Someone a little less pretty should have been cast while you're left with the impression that Deniro and Pesci were first choices for Costello rather than Nicholson . Damon does merely okay as Sullivan while Ray Winstone as French is somewhat distracting because he's a widely regarded actor and household name in Britain and seeing him attempt an American accent is something of a shock to the system . The one performance I wasn't keen on was Mark Wahlberg as Dignam down to the fact he plays one of those fast talking foul mouthed cops that we've seen in far too many films and HBO series. Perhaps I'm being somewhat harsh to the cast in general and Wahlberg in particular because the dialog in Monahan's screenplay contains far too much swearing . Yeah I know swearing exists in real life but it's almost like it's included in every line just so the audience know that it's a hard hitting adult drama . I think everyone knew that when we saw the name Scorsese in the title . No need to over egg the pudding or include a fist fight every few minutes otherwise someone might think they're watching a Tarintino movie
As for the good points ... well if you've liked most of this great auteur's movies then you'll certainly like THE DEPARTED , just not as much as you've liked Scorses's previous output . If you have loved most of Scorsese's films then you'll be slightly disappointed . It's not helped by the fact that this is the first movie directed by Scorsese to pick up the Oscar for best film where as master works like TAXI DRIVER , RAGING BULL and GOODFELLAS didn't