5/10 for di caprio

Rating: 5/10 (21 December 2006)

I've watched this movie about a year after I saw Internal Affairs and was gravely disappointed with it.
The production team that was working for Scorses did an awful job. The camera work was absolutely ridiculous, most scenes were disjointed and story progressed in pieces that were hard to relate to each other. The only reason to even consider watching this movie and the only positive thing I could find in it is a first-rate performance by Di Caprio who was absolutely splendid. His character was not just believable, but also gave a good impression of an undercover cop. He was the only thing left in the movie to keep the drama going. Other actors were mediocre and their characters were either very shallow or totally ludicrous.
The original movie took a very personal approach, the two cops develop a special relationship between each other and everyone else plays a secondary role (including the mafia boss). In Scorsese adaptation, the relationship is non-existent. The boss played by Jack Nicholson becomes a prominent character, but is strangely portrayed as a demented old fool who's losing all sense of reality and why anyone would want to make him a supportive role in the movie is beyond me.
In my opinion a lot of things were done really badly in The Departed and although Internal Affairs was no masterpiece either, it managed to deliver a much better crime thriller with a lot more attitude than Scorsese's adaptation.
I give this 5/10, mostly for Di Caprio's performance.