Moving Pictures: The Departed

Banana and I were looking to see The Prestige but alas our timing was off again. But The Departed came highly recommended.

Now on paper this was potentially a really great movie. First off, Martin Scorsese is still desperate for Oscar and every year he delivers an ambitious project to help him taste its glory, so you know just because he's directing that there is a good shot that it is good. Second, the cast was just chock full of credible acting. Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Matt Damon. Plus Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, and Alec Baldwin in supporting roles. This was either going to be really good or really disappointing.

Luckily the former won out. We didn't even realize how long the movie was (about 2.5 hours) until it was over cause we were so caught up in the story. Basically it follows a Boston mob figure (Nicholson), the cop he has in his pocket (Damon), and the cop who is spying on him (DiCaprio). DiCaprio is particularly good cause he plays the tormented soul angle all too well. It makes you wonder what's happening in his personal life cause he's so good at it. He gets all the layers down perfectly. Nicholson is a little over the top sometimes but I don't know if that's his issue or maybe the script's. Damon also does well. The ensemble movie is gaining more steam and rightly so because it's a whole lot easier and plausible to make a quality movie when multiple quality people are involved. Makes the story a lot realer too.

Anyway,highly recommended. Will join my DVD fold eventually