Who Do You Trust?
Yesterday we took in Martin Scorsese's The Departed.
I was at first surprised to see this movie, which came out in October, in a local theater, but now that I see the Golden Globes push is on my surprise disappeared. It's being talked up by many critics, after all. I'd meant to see it a couple months ago but time slipped away. Seeing the opportunity I decided I didn't want to wait for video.
Boston, Massachusetts. Thick with Irishmen, those coming from the lower economic classes looking to get anywhere are drawn into organized crime, the police force, or a masquerade. We primarily follow two men from the neighborhood (DiCaprio and Damon) as they climb their respective ladders. We're presented with questions as to which path was best, both at points along the way and as the nooses tighten.
Was it Scorses's best? No, but it's the best I've seen from him since Casino, if not before. (Casino was enjoyable, but was too strongly riding the conceptual coattails of Goodfellas, being partially a reunion film for some of the cast.) The Departed brings us cops, criminals and some who aren't what they pretend to be.
Scorsese tries a little too hard to hit the audience with sudden twists in the final fifth of this 151 minute film, and tries to wrap things a tad too neatly... but the film remains crisp even as it taunts the audience with flashes of hope and splashes of despair. Not an upbeat film in the final analysis, but that shouldn't surprise anyone familiar with the director and this vein of storytelling.
The final shot of the film, though, still has me a touch stupefied by what struck me as either a joke that shouldn't have survived the rushes or a bit of attempted symbolism so leaden that a sophomore film student would be embarrassed by it.
Strong performances all around, assisted by some snappy dialogue and some scene-chewing parts written here and there for not only Nicholson, as one would expect, but also for Mark Wahlberg as the aggressively wise-ass Dignam. Each in his own way, most of the fairly impressive cast puts on a good show. Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon each demonstrate acting chops I hadn't previously credited them with. Alec Baldwin & Martin Sheen each turn in solid supporting cast performances.
I'll be looking forward to seeing this again on the small screen, when I'll have the luxury of revisiting it with more freedom to pause and appreciate the details.
Tags: Matt Damon, The Departed, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorsese
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Comments
My flip response is that much like their backgrounds in poor, Irish neighborhoods, she was meant to represent a common, contemporary link between Damon and DiCaprio's characters. That they both came to have some sort of relationship with her was another sign that Damon and DiCaprio were largely the same character in terms of raw materials, simply taking different paths. She was also a good device for both raising Damon's life with the promise of a real future so that once things started to go South he had that much more to lose. Related to this, she also represented a last chance for Damon's character to realize the path he was on was doomed.
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