The Departed - Movie Review
Oct. 28th, 2006 11:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat[Tonight's background noise is Saturday Night Live, which I haven't watched since...well I think Sarah Michelle Gellar hosted it during her Buffy days, only watching it tonight to see Hugh Laurie. Yet, instead I get guy doing the Borat film - which Wales cackled at the previews of today at the movie theater while I sat somewhat bored, I think I've seen the Borat trailer one too many times now, the jokes are getting old. Although he did have a couple funny lines tonight and I liked the monkey. Ah Laurie. Cool to hear Laurie in original accident.]
We saw The Departed today which all the critics seem to be swooning over. But then all you need to say is Martin Scorsese and Jack Nicholoson in a sentence and a movie critic will swoon. I don't know, found it to be sort of long and boring in places. I looked at my watch twice. Afterwards asked Wales, if it was just me or if Scorcese's films had gotten longer in the last few years. She asked what time is it? I said 3:15. Oh my god. It was a long movie. The film started at 12:30. Don't get me wrong, don't mind long movies - if they need to be long. Adore David Lean's films: Passage to India and Lawrence of Arabia, which were so long, we got an intermission. Reds. And Fellowship of the Ring. But this film was unnecessarily long and far longer than it needed to be. They could have trimmed at least twenty minutes off of it - but whoops that would have given Jack Nicholson less time to chew scenery.
I think I may have enjoyed the film more if they'd flipped Alec Baldwin and Jack Nicholoson. ie. Had Nicholoson play the FBI agent and Baldwin the Mob guy. Or if they'd flipped Di-Caprio and Damon. Wales enjoyed it - but then Wales was running her own version of the movie over the one that actually aired and was somewhat taken aback with the ending, while I saw the ending coming a mile away. Methinks I've seen one too many noir films in my lifetime.
Wales: You know I thought that the Matt Damon character, Sullivan, was going to realize he was gay, team up with DiCaprio, Will, and take down Costello. And they'd ride off in the sunset.
I stare at Wales: Uh. No wonder you liked it you running your own slash fanfic in your head.
Wales (whose never read a slash fanfic in her life and only knows what it is from my descriptions of it): no, not Will and Sully together. Will would be allowed to ride off with the girl. Sully would remain a cop and be happy.
Me: Ah, I've seen that done (in A John Woo film called "The Killer" I think)... But not in a noir film.
Wales: Oh, was it a noir?
Me: Yes, you didn't know that? It's a remake of a very good Japanese film called Infernal Affairs. At least I think it's Japanese, might be Chinese.
Wales: Oh I forgot all about that film.
Proof positive that people see different movies when they enter the movie theater. While I was watching a long-winded somewhat predictable, incredibly violent noire film, Wales freely admits she was watching a comedic somewhat tragic character piece about a repressed homosexual cop who is lying about himself. She points out how Sully clearly was gay, but repressed because he was in bed with his girl and couldn't get it up. Plus all the phallic imagery in the movie around Sully - the tower of chocolate, the banana his girl is eating, the fake penis the Nicholson character shoves at him in a porn theater that Sully picked, and the Capital building. Wales had a point. I'd noticed the phallic imagery, just not the bit about the impotence. Wales also found the joke with Nicholson's mouth covered with blood and Joker card beneath him a funny reference to his role in Batman. I missed it, but I was bored with Nicholson's antics. I prefer Nicholson when he's more subdued and reigning it in. Over-the-top Nicholson, bores me. This may explain why I prefer Batman Begins to Batman.
Someone online said that the Chinese film Infernal Affairs was much darker. And that Scorcese copped out. Uhm okay. Now I'm really curious about Infernal Affairs. Because neither Wales nor I could see how they could make that film any darker. I vaguely remember the two leads in Infernal being brothers and identical - that may have been the dark twist, which Scorses did not do?
I knew within the first fifteen minutes of the film that Scorsese had screwed up. He focuses on Sully's back-story, we get Will's through photos, and bit scenes much later. This does not work since the film is supposed to be following both men and about doubles. It should be flashing back and forth between the two more, building our sympathy for both, seeing how both get to the point they do and why. The Prestige accomplishes the duality theme far better as well as the back and forth narratives. I'd also have to state that of the two, Prestige is far better on all notes - cinemagraphic, dialogue, acting, direction, and story. Yeah, I figured out the endings of both far before they were revealed, but with The Prestige, it did not matter. There was much more going on. Also of the two endings? The Prestige was by far more satisfying, and haunting. The Departed felt like one too many films I've seen in the past. It was telegraphed. Somewhat hokey. And I rolled my eyes. Oh and there's a nifty little shot at the end, that was like hammering the audience over the head with a two-by-four - see this is the theme of the film just in case you didn't get it! Of the two? I cared about the characters in The Prestige, who were equally complex, and equally flawed, and pained. While The Departed's characters felt stereotypical and somewhat flat. I can still remember every bit and piece of the Prestige and would like to see it again. The Departed? I'll forget within two days. And have no interest in seeing again. Oh well, at least it was cheaper, six bucks instead of seven. Not worth more than six bucks, so am glad about that.
The Departed: C+
We saw The Departed today which all the critics seem to be swooning over. But then all you need to say is Martin Scorsese and Jack Nicholoson in a sentence and a movie critic will swoon. I don't know, found it to be sort of long and boring in places. I looked at my watch twice. Afterwards asked Wales, if it was just me or if Scorcese's films had gotten longer in the last few years. She asked what time is it? I said 3:15. Oh my god. It was a long movie. The film started at 12:30. Don't get me wrong, don't mind long movies - if they need to be long. Adore David Lean's films: Passage to India and Lawrence of Arabia, which were so long, we got an intermission. Reds. And Fellowship of the Ring. But this film was unnecessarily long and far longer than it needed to be. They could have trimmed at least twenty minutes off of it - but whoops that would have given Jack Nicholson less time to chew scenery.
I think I may have enjoyed the film more if they'd flipped Alec Baldwin and Jack Nicholoson. ie. Had Nicholoson play the FBI agent and Baldwin the Mob guy. Or if they'd flipped Di-Caprio and Damon. Wales enjoyed it - but then Wales was running her own version of the movie over the one that actually aired and was somewhat taken aback with the ending, while I saw the ending coming a mile away. Methinks I've seen one too many noir films in my lifetime.
Wales: You know I thought that the Matt Damon character, Sullivan, was going to realize he was gay, team up with DiCaprio, Will, and take down Costello. And they'd ride off in the sunset.
I stare at Wales: Uh. No wonder you liked it you running your own slash fanfic in your head.
Wales (whose never read a slash fanfic in her life and only knows what it is from my descriptions of it): no, not Will and Sully together. Will would be allowed to ride off with the girl. Sully would remain a cop and be happy.
Me: Ah, I've seen that done (in A John Woo film called "The Killer" I think)... But not in a noir film.
Wales: Oh, was it a noir?
Me: Yes, you didn't know that? It's a remake of a very good Japanese film called Infernal Affairs. At least I think it's Japanese, might be Chinese.
Wales: Oh I forgot all about that film.
Proof positive that people see different movies when they enter the movie theater. While I was watching a long-winded somewhat predictable, incredibly violent noire film, Wales freely admits she was watching a comedic somewhat tragic character piece about a repressed homosexual cop who is lying about himself. She points out how Sully clearly was gay, but repressed because he was in bed with his girl and couldn't get it up. Plus all the phallic imagery in the movie around Sully - the tower of chocolate, the banana his girl is eating, the fake penis the Nicholson character shoves at him in a porn theater that Sully picked, and the Capital building. Wales had a point. I'd noticed the phallic imagery, just not the bit about the impotence. Wales also found the joke with Nicholson's mouth covered with blood and Joker card beneath him a funny reference to his role in Batman. I missed it, but I was bored with Nicholson's antics. I prefer Nicholson when he's more subdued and reigning it in. Over-the-top Nicholson, bores me. This may explain why I prefer Batman Begins to Batman.
Someone online said that the Chinese film Infernal Affairs was much darker. And that Scorcese copped out. Uhm okay. Now I'm really curious about Infernal Affairs. Because neither Wales nor I could see how they could make that film any darker. I vaguely remember the two leads in Infernal being brothers and identical - that may have been the dark twist, which Scorses did not do?
I knew within the first fifteen minutes of the film that Scorsese had screwed up. He focuses on Sully's back-story, we get Will's through photos, and bit scenes much later. This does not work since the film is supposed to be following both men and about doubles. It should be flashing back and forth between the two more, building our sympathy for both, seeing how both get to the point they do and why. The Prestige accomplishes the duality theme far better as well as the back and forth narratives. I'd also have to state that of the two, Prestige is far better on all notes - cinemagraphic, dialogue, acting, direction, and story. Yeah, I figured out the endings of both far before they were revealed, but with The Prestige, it did not matter. There was much more going on. Also of the two endings? The Prestige was by far more satisfying, and haunting. The Departed felt like one too many films I've seen in the past. It was telegraphed. Somewhat hokey. And I rolled my eyes. Oh and there's a nifty little shot at the end, that was like hammering the audience over the head with a two-by-four - see this is the theme of the film just in case you didn't get it! Of the two? I cared about the characters in The Prestige, who were equally complex, and equally flawed, and pained. While The Departed's characters felt stereotypical and somewhat flat. I can still remember every bit and piece of the Prestige and would like to see it again. The Departed? I'll forget within two days. And have no interest in seeing again. Oh well, at least it was cheaper, six bucks instead of seven. Not worth more than six bucks, so am glad about that.
The Departed: C+
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-29 09:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-29 04:40 pm (UTC)The film has so many problems with it. Did the original focus as much on the Jack Nicholson character? That I realized this morning may have been the biggest problem, Scorsese practically handed the film over to Nicholson, when Nicholson should have had a minor role similar to Sheen, Wahlberg and Baldwin - the focus throughout the film should have been solely on Damon and DiCaprio's characters - this is something Christopher Nolan achieves with The Prestige and Scorsese fails with The Departed - the point of view isn't really kept between Sully and Costigian - we get too many scenes with Costello's pov which don't work.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-30 12:02 am (UTC)I wished they had got Brian Dennehy or Brian Cox to play Costello.
Nicholson wasn't even Irish-y. He was his own sideshow.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-30 04:20 pm (UTC)From what I'd read about the film - Scorsese apparently broadened Nicholson's role once he got him on board. That's what happens when you ask Nicholson to appear in a film, he'll look at the movie and say - okay, give me something to chew and I might be interested. Originally the role was supposed to be about as large as Sheen's. There's at least two scenes in the film that make no sense - if we are supposed to be solely in Damon and DiCaprio's pov. One is the meet-up between Nicholson, Sheen and Walhberg - which goes no where, and the other is Nicholson frolicking with his women and cocaine.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-30 12:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-30 02:35 pm (UTC)If this movie has a weakness, it's not Nicholson--it's Scorcese. The entire movie is over-the-top and cartoonish, not just Jack. Wahlberg spouting Southie gutter slang at everybody on camera, Baldwin brawling with the tech guys, it's all just WAY. TOO. MUCH. If Scorcese just toned everybody down a little, made everything just a little less broad, the movie might have been on a level with some of his earlier classics. (OK, maybe Dennehy would have been a better choice for Costello....)
I still liked it though, because I thought Damon and DiCaprio were really good here, and they're two actors who have never appealed to me in any movie. If you take the movie as a shallow pulp thriller (yes, with homoerotic subtext--hee!), it's a lot of fun.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-30 07:36 pm (UTC)was like. The Aviator was more reigned in.
DiCaprio surprised me in the film, he was riviting. Damon, less so. I enjoyed Damon more in the Bourne Films and recently in Syriana. Although he does a good job.
No, Wahlberg, Baldwin and Nicholoson were a bit too over the top. The only believable cops were Sully and Sheen. And you're correct that's not the actors fault, that's the director's.
I may have appreciated the film more if I hadn't seen The Prestige the week before, which was by far the better film.