Pretty Good, But From Scorsese We Expect More

Rating: 7/10 (9 November 2006)

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I know that this next statement is irrelevant regarding my review but I feel obligated to state it anyway for the sole reason of justifying a perhaps more critical review than I otherwise would have written: Scorsese is easily one of my favorite directors. Not on only for the films that he has made, but also for his passionate involvement in elevating film as art outside of the realm of his own film-making. From his documentary work to his stature as this country's Movie Laureate, Scorsese is ever-present discussing film, throwing his two cents into a wide variety of cinema documentaries and retrospectives -- which I wonder if he agrees to do when he hears that his absence would cause the documentarian to interview Brett Ratner regarding Rossellini's influence on neo-realism.
But with great power comes great responsibility, and for Scorsese this means film-making that lives up to his name, which unfortunately "The Departed" does not. Which is not to say that it is a bad movie, it's just not what one comes to expect from a true genius in the field. In "The Departed," the swift dialogue and intricate plot is weighed down by its notable plot holes and manic roster of male leads which looks like Ben Affleck's Friday night poker game spilled out onto a Hollywood sound stage after one too many double espressos.
The two exceptions to this is not surprisingly Damon, who once again puts in a rare performance of a lead star adopting a character rather than vice-versa, and to my surprise DiCaprio, who when he steps back from playing hyper-Leo, effectively exudes the vulnerability and nervousness of a character fighting the inner tension of a person torn between professional loyalty and personal survival. On the opposite side of the fence is Wahlberg, whose singular direction seemed to have been, "Be really loud and mad," Baldwin and Sheen, two roles that would have been better served by character actors given their minor role in the film, and Nicholson, who seems to think that he needs to prove he can still play a bad guy by burning random objects and fondling dismembered body parts. But with his unkept hair and woefully chosen wardrobe, Nicholson's supposedly evil gangster character seems like he would be more comfortable lining up at the shuffleboard deck than capping bullets in enemies heads, which by the time the movie winds it way to the end, happens frequently enough to the various characters that the impact is minor at best, leading me to wonder whether killing off main characters in a movie is exceeding profound or simply an easy escape for a story searching for a finale.
And with any discussion of a film by a legendary director, Scorcese's performance itself needs to be judged as a sixth man in an otherwise crowded court. Here it seems that his characteristic style of un-static camera work and innovative plot progression is all but absent here. The Departed looks prosaic and darts along frantically from one scene to another with what seems like little thought of what the impact of each scene would be on the audience. Though in another Scorsese motif, the thundering rock soundtrack was well chosen -- including a great version of "Comfortably Numb" with Van Morrison on vocals -- and worked well to create both an edgy feel for the gritty locales as well as providing dramatic influence in certain key scenes.
But as the pasts of the main characters come back to haunt each of them with dire consequences, Scorcese's own cinematic past does the same, building up expectations that are not quite met in otherwise good film that should have been great. Luckily for Scorsese, in the world of film-making this amounts to little more than a bad review rather than a bullet in the head. If only "The Departed" could have been so lucky.