Review: The Departed (And why its my favourite film of the century - TopicsExpress

Review: The Departed (And why its my favourite film of the century thus-far) The Departed is by far and away my favourite film of the 21st century, not only that but its also in my opinion, one of the greatest films ever made. Rarely for me, my love for this film is explicable for an entirely normal reason. The fact that it stars some of the greatest actors of the 21st century if not of all time (not to mention the fact that it stars the actor who is, doubtless, THE greatest of all time) all of whom bring their a game and then some. That being the case its impossible to comment on every performance in the detail that they deserve, as such Ill be commenting on a few of my personal favourites. Leonardo DiCaprios turn as the undercover Massachusetts state detective Bill Costigan has to be his greatest performance to date-yes, better than Gatsby, his Gatsby is a great version of the Gatsby from the book, but Costigan is DiCaprios character through and through, a broken, battered husk of a man struggling on a daily basis to maintain the web of lies he has built to keep both his cover and indeed his very sanity in tact. Every moment of Bills torment at the hands of his job feels as raw and visceral as anything Ive ever seen on the silver screen. There are moments when you cannot help but feel a desperate sympathy for him as he struggles to cope with the isolation of a duty which it seems to me, he has long since forgotten his reasons for accepting. One scene that always sticks in mind after every viewing is the scene where he stares at a photograph of his recently deceased mother as he recounts to his psychiatrist the sheer stress associated with having to keep his cool when working with Ray Winstones psychotic “mass murderer” Mr. French. Mr. DiCaprio, I salute you. People often criticise Mark Wahlbergs performances for being “overly sincere”, and to an extent I agree with them, sometimes he overdoes it in such a way which makes his lines almost sound comedic. But here, as Sgt. Sean Dignam he gives what is one of the all time great supporting performances. I really cant put it any better than than. If you wanna see what makes it so good, watch the film, youll get it. Every scene hes in belongs to him, even the one where he appears alongside the topic of my next paragraph. How can I mention The Departed without mentioning Jack Nicholson as Frank Costello....pardon my french a moment here. But HOLY SHIT is this guy ever terrifying. Rather than just stick with the “vaguely unhinged crime boss” angle Nicholson went all out as only he and a handful of others could. His Costello is a barely functioning psychopath, utterly unpredictable and entirely beyond human compassion or emotion, and his reasoning for this is just so simple, by far his most haunting and powerful piece of dialogue in the entire film (and if you havent seen it allow me to emphasise THERE ARE A LOT OF THEM) is when he is asked why at his age he has made the decision to get into narcotics, his simple answer - because he likes it. Costello, if you ask me, is his most terrifying character ever, and when you consider who were talking about here Id call that pretty high praise (the man manages to be intimidating in a fishing hat for Christs sake) Nicholsons performance in this movie could probably warrant a review in of itself, it certainly makes the film worth a look if you havent already. I said about Wahlberg that he owns every scene hes in, and how DiCaprio utterly owns his character....Well. Jack Nicholson Owns this movie. So there you go, some of the many reasons why The Departed is my favourite film made in the last 13 years. Its a shame I dont have more time to do a more full write up.....but then I could probably write a book on the reasons why this film is awesome so its probably better that I dont. If you do need some more reasons to go and watch this film, heres a few more from the list. Alec Baldwins character is an absolute riot and lends some great comedy to almost every scene he graces with his presence. The supporting cast includes Martin Sheen......what does that say to you about the talent on display. It was the movie that reminded me that Matt Damon is capable of being good outside of Paul Greengrass movies.....as long as those movies are set in Boston. Ray Winstons attempt at a South Boston accent is genuinely one of the most terrifying things ever. The soundtrack is the best thing Ive ever heard in a film- The Beach Boys, the Allman Brothers, Roger Waters, Van Morisson, the Band the Rolling Stones and the Dropkick Murphys on one album? Colour me very happy indeed. - Sweeney