So I saw The Departed the other night. After what sees like a long draught of good movies all summer, there are finally a bunch of good ones coming down the pike.
You know from the trailers that the movie’s about two moles… one gang guy in the police, and a police guy working in the gang. What I loved about this movie were the two most important parts… the acting and the writing. Matt Damon as the gang guy owns the first part of the movie. His smoothness, the ease with which he lies and deceives contradicts his wholesome all American looks. And Dicaprio’s police guy owns the back end. As a police rat, he’s forced to live a double life that takes an increasing toll on his sanity and psyche. The wear shows in his face and his expressive eyes. Add the humor of Alec Baldwin’s police unit chief… just the kind of funny boss you’d want to work for. Jack Nicholson does his whole Jack-thing with the mob boss character. He opens the movie with a quiet voiced racially charged rant that has no purpose other than to set the tone of the mob guy’s mind. There are a few scenes that stood out to me that seemed Jack driven as opposed to script driven, but that’s why you hire Nicholson, right?
The script itself was pretty well done, I thought. Scorsese uses a really interesting plot device. He uses a mirror, two moles… each has a father figure that guides his work, each have similar struggles and the climax of the movie happens when the mirror breaks.
Coming up, I’m looking forward to the Prestige and Flags of Our Fathers.
