The Departed (2006)
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The Departed Movie Review
The Departed is a 2006 crime film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson. It is a very entertaining, but clichéd film.
The Departed’s plot is very formulaic and I’ve seen this type of story countless times before. You have a mole from each side, one in the gang and one in the police. And that theme of mistaken identity is done do death by now. However, whereas I found its plot to be clichéd, I still found it to be incredibly entertaining and fun to watch. And that is a rarity for me because I usually strongly dislike gangster flicks. But this one was mostly engaging.
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“One of us had to die. With me, it tends to be the other guy“
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The characters are good, but they are still archetypes. Billy is probably the strongest character here, the one audiences can relate to most. Colin is the opposite, very unlikable, but he serves his purpose. Frank is a typical mobster character who doesn’t differentiate himself from others of the same type. Dignam is very annoying, Madden is quite good and all of the others aren’t memorable.
The acting is particularly good with Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon being the standouts, both giving great performances. Jack Nicholson is also quite good as is Vera Farmiga, but Mark Wahlberg’s performance is very overrated.
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The Departed’s main problem has to be its length. It never makes a case for it, ending in a very prolonged, overlong film with a particularly dragging third act. I just felt that the entire movie could have been shortened by at least half an hour and it would have been much better. In terms of storytelling, it is well crafted, but as I said, standard. But its entertainment value is strong. I found the pacing to be very bad as it is too long, too dragging and sometimes it contains some unnecessary sequences.
It is well directed by Martin Scorsese and very well acted. It is also well shot and solidly scored, but its use of various popular songs bothered me as most of those songs were highly annoying to me. The movie is also never as emotional as it could have been and it is also not as dramatic. It is mostly intense and dramatic, but if it were shorter, the effect would have been stronger.
I respect this movie for not going into overly repulsive and violent territory and that is one of the reasons why I liked it despite me not liking the genre. Its structure is also solid with a very strong first act and the film does have some terrific action sequences.
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The Departed is famous for being the film that finally garnered Scorsese his Oscar, both for directing and best film. And I agree that both are undeserved as that year had some particularly strong Best Picture nominees. Its wins for screenplay and editing are also not fair. And the fact that Mark Walhberg was the only actor here nominated is just ludicrous to me when his performance is both overrated and forgettable. DiCaprio and Damon should have been nominated as they were much better. Overall, The Departed caught me by surprise how entertaining and solid it is, but it is still too clichéd to be enjoyed more.
The Departed is a very entertaining movie with a fun story, terrific performances from its great cast and some quite memorable sequences, but it is still an incredibly clichéd gangster flick with typical characters and a very formulaic plot. It is also overlong as it should have been shorter for at least half an hour. But it is still surprisingly solid and entertaining.
My Rating – 3.5
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