Sunday, April 08, 2007

Review: The Departed

Martin Scorsese's recent Oscar winner, The Departed, is a great piece of entertainment. This film is filled with plot twists (some are a bit obvious, however) and action. The all-star cast includes Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Sheen, and Alec Baldwin all providing wonderful performances replete with Boston accents.

"We deal in deception," Sheen's character Queenan says to Billy (DiCaprio). And that's exactly what the movie is about. Every major character leads a double life in the roles of state police officers and Irish mobsters. There are two sides to every scene--the good and the bad--and the audience usually knows which side is being seen. Scorsese provides the viewers with close-ups that deliver the emotion or lack thereof emitted by the characters trapped in duality.

I was impressed with the minor role of Baldwin playing Ellerby. There isn't a dual role in here, but he does act like a speed addict trying to be a straight cop. He adds subtle comic relief to the drama that film portrays.

This is the Americanized version of the Hong Kong original Mou Gaan Dou, written by Siu Fai Mak. I'll have to try to find it to see how it matches up--I doubt the Hong Kong version has the style that Scorsese brings to the screen.

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