I heard a lot of hype about Martin Scorsese's latest film The Departed. The film's cast is littered with legendary and hot-list names including Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, and Jack Nicholson. The screenplay is based on a Hong Kong crime drama called Infernal Affairs. It was a perfect set-up for disappointment. But...
The 150-minute movie starts fast, and never slows down. The plot is intricately woven and I'm sure that I might come close to grasping all the twists and turns if I saw it again; particularly minus the record popcorn-eating binge, frequent bathroom breaks, and hilarious "trip up the stairs -- SPLASH -- my pop!" moment of the guys behind and to the right of us; also, minus the people who decided this would be a pleasant movie to which they could bring a 2-year old (perhaps they match the film's f-bomb pace at home, but I can only assume that the film's level of violence is unmatched, even at daycare).
The acting was superb, capped off by the best performance I've seen from Jack Nicholson in years. Scorsese kept him in line, drawing out Jack's famous nuttiness in controlled fashion. I keep not wanting to like Leonardo DiCaprio, probably some sort of deranged payback for Titanic and having botched so many relationships with international runway models; but he was terrific. I really don't think there was a bad performance in the whole thing.
Assuming they didn't stray too far from the original movie, we owe a big thanks from those guys in Hong Kong for reminding us how to make a crime drama (Note to self: rent original for comparison). I can't gush enough. My imdb rating: 9.
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