Epic !.. What Epic ?!

Rating: 2/10 (29 October 2013)

Sometimes, the Oscars, and the film critics, agree on one opinion. Sometimes, I disagree with that. This time is one of their biggest!
(The Departed) is a crime thriller. And coming from such an honored director, such as Martin Scorsese, guarantees thrill and possible substance. However, it wasn't that excellent, and had many problems.
The time-line wasn't taken care of; suddenly, within 2 ordinary scenes, not even a respectable montage, a year passed by! The doctor is falling in love with 2 police officers, where their second is undercover, and no one knows about it; whether their first, or the mob?!! While Jack Nicholson's character, Costello, is a mafia lord, who makes international arms deals, he's still running around the streets, collecting protection money; so is he a mafia lord or a small time goon?!! Mark Wahlberg's character can't be the relief, can't be convincing, and - to tell you the truth - can't be bearable either! The F word is given, every second, in a free and overabundant manner; they used it for a total of 237 times. Unlike Scorsese' other mafia movies, increasing the cursing or swearing wasn't made for the sake of enhancing a realistic atmosphere inasmuch as compensating the drama's weakness, which didn't happen. On the contrary, it added fakeness, bore and nervousness! And how in God's name a dangerous police mission, like sending a man undercover through the world of organized crime, is known by just 2 persons?!?!?!!?!
Who told Leonardo DiCaprio that the movie was a comedy? Because he acted exactly as if he was in one. By the way he looked and reacted, he was a scared mouse all along, so near of crying out loud: "I'M A POLICEMAN, KILL ME AND PUT ME OUT OF MY MISERY!!". Matt Damon is not charismatic enough, talented enough, and hence veracious or right. I didn't hate his character, rather I hated him being unable to make me hate his character! His flat face and cold reactions don't tell that he came from the bottom. Vera Farmiga is mediocre at times, and so bad at others. There is no love in her eyes, maybe tension and horror. There is not one atom of chemistry between her and her 2 co-stars. And there is no doubt that she seemed older than them! Martin Sheen was icy as usual, but this time I can blame the script as well; obviously, he had no character.
However, no one was more wrong than Jack Nicholson as Costello, to be the main course in this nonsense feast. Really what's worse than not understanding, feeling, or being persuaded by a character in a movie?! That Nicholson's Costello wasn't catchy, by any mean. And wasn't Irish either, by any mean! To add more and more fuel, Scorsese thought that talking dirty and loud, with some eccentric moves, make a unique evil gangster, but no such luck. So all the performance that I watched ranged between Jack Nicholson's Joker of Batman, and Jack Nicholson himself acting vainly. Enough to recall his scene with DiCaprio, while he was suspecting the latter; which was a complete drollery instead of a master scene!
Speaking about farce leads directly to the movie's own substance. It's bogus. When Ray Winstone's character, who's - by the way - an underdeveloped character, says in bitter wisdom: "A nation of rats..", you have to laugh sadly. "Laugh" since this is the script's way to insert policy, or social commentary in this already unthrilling thriller. And "sadly" because this adolescence comes from someone who used to be subtle like Scorsese. And it's the same adolescence which you find in the last scene with the rat. Ok, in regard to this, The Simpsons' Ralph Wiggum couldn't say it better: "It symbolizes obviousness!!". As a whole, the way this movie was made, doesn't turn it into a tragedy about the distrust in post-9/11 America, however maybe a farce about the same subject, especially with the end's farcical massacre!
In his worst movies, Scorsese is interesting. However, here, it is so bad I think. His directing didn't win any artistic top; and it's a rare time when he makes something that doesn't impress or affect. As many of his movies, it's fast-paced, but his sedate touch was missed. Originally, the script lacks the power of cogency, as if it has no time for anything, and gives us the news flashes only. So with frantic editing, the movie felt like a speedy trailer, becoming utterly delirious. Therefore, any intended serious theme or satire came to nothing, and all what remained was mediocre crime thriller of which you don't enjoy much, and regretfully say after finishing: "That could have been better."
All in all, in (The Departed) Martin Scorsese pulled off making uninteresting package of nervousness and adolescence, which has no relation whatsoever to his previous, and true, mafia epics like (Goodfellas) and (Casino). Although I may find explanations for choosing it as The Best Motion Picture of 2006 (America's bigwig critics are idiot, 2006's movies are horrible..), but I really don't know how the Academy gave Scorsese his first Oscar as a director for his so-called epic!