The Departed
Martin Scorsese, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg
It is rather apt that the title for Scorsese's latest movie also appears to be an anagram for The Predated and almost for The Repeated, for it is a competent remake of Lau Keung Wai's Hong Kong cop and gangster classic, Infernal Affairs. To his credit, Scorsese doesn't try to out-do Infernal Affairs; the plot never strays far from the original and the departed even depart in the same way. There are, in fact, rather a lot of departeds in this movie, but for all the body count, the film has neither the style nor the tension of the original. Scorsese is compelled to give away too much early on, spoonfeeding viewers information that they would have much more fun trying to figure out for themselves as the plot unravels. The result is a much slower and far less engaging movie than the original. The film gains little from being transplanted from the bright lights and triad turf of Hong Kong to the ganglands of the US, other than some dodgy Bostonian accents, some even more questionable hairdos (really, who's idea was it to give Mark Wahlberg THAT?!?), and a lot of cursing.
The performances are competent, although one gets tired of Matt Damon after about 10 minutes, with DiCaprio being by far the better of the two protagonists. It's always fun to watch Nicholson act like a complete whackjob, although some of it is unnecessarily indulgent. Mark Wahlberg's added character, however, seems completely pointless other than to add more deadweight (although he doesn't actually die...) and a few moments of humour. Being re-made for a Western audience, the ending invariably had to be changed, which is a huge disappointment. Although at least we can be certain that Scorsese won't attempt the next two installments in the Infernal Affairs trilogy.
My advice, go rent the original on DVD.
It is rather apt that the title for Scorsese's latest movie also appears to be an anagram for The Predated and almost for The Repeated, for it is a competent remake of Lau Keung Wai's Hong Kong cop and gangster classic, Infernal Affairs. To his credit, Scorsese doesn't try to out-do Infernal Affairs; the plot never strays far from the original and the departed even depart in the same way. There are, in fact, rather a lot of departeds in this movie, but for all the body count, the film has neither the style nor the tension of the original. Scorsese is compelled to give away too much early on, spoonfeeding viewers information that they would have much more fun trying to figure out for themselves as the plot unravels. The result is a much slower and far less engaging movie than the original. The film gains little from being transplanted from the bright lights and triad turf of Hong Kong to the ganglands of the US, other than some dodgy Bostonian accents, some even more questionable hairdos (really, who's idea was it to give Mark Wahlberg THAT?!?), and a lot of cursing.
The performances are competent, although one gets tired of Matt Damon after about 10 minutes, with DiCaprio being by far the better of the two protagonists. It's always fun to watch Nicholson act like a complete whackjob, although some of it is unnecessarily indulgent. Mark Wahlberg's added character, however, seems completely pointless other than to add more deadweight (although he doesn't actually die...) and a few moments of humour. Being re-made for a Western audience, the ending invariably had to be changed, which is a huge disappointment. Although at least we can be certain that Scorsese won't attempt the next two installments in the Infernal Affairs trilogy.
My advice, go rent the original on DVD.
posted by CCT at 5:45 pm
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