Monday, July 2, 2012

Rats in the Ranks - "The Departed" (2006)


Mat here.

We saw The Departed right before we started doing our Oscar blog, so it was no big problem to watch this one again with a scoresheet handy. We rewatched this one with my parents, but it was their first time.
I'll try to stay spoiler-free for the folks who have yet to catch The Departed.

Set in Boston, state trooper Matt Damon is secretly working for Irish mob boss Jack Nicholson, feeding him info about raids and being his inside man. Meanwhile, Leonardo di Caprio is also a cop and is recruited by Martin Sheen and Mark Wahlberg to work as an undercover  cop and infiltrate Nicholson's team.

The double dealing and cat-and-mouse (or rat, in the case of this movie) situations create some knife-edge suspense and some gut-wrenching twists and turns. There's a love triangle as well, which is probably the only weak spot in the movie as it strains believability just a bit more than it needs to be.

The entire all-star cast is at the top of their game, and I could watch this movie over and over. The Departed is a remake of the Hong Kong series of films Infernal Affairs, condensed and repurposed to Boston.

Director Martin Scorsese was reportedly unhappy with the final film, but I couldn't disagree more - I think it's amongst his finest work. He won Best Director, and the Departed also picked up Best Adapted Screenplay and best Editing. Mark Wahlberg was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, playing a cop that he says is based on all the officers he met as a young car thief.

The Departed is an excellent movie and stands up well to repeated viewing. It was fun watching Mum & Dad gasp and cringe when we knew what was coming!

Danielle and I were tied on 87/100 while mum and dad, ever harsher gave it 82 and 85 respectively.

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