Let’s face it, most of the time when a lot of popular actors are thrown together in a film by a renown director it’s an attempt to achieve greatness and the media hype that’s initially generated is quickly replaced by bad reviews. I thought this might be the case for The Departed when I saw the first commercial for it. But I still wanted to see it. Not because of Nicholson but because of my favorite actors of my generation: Damon, Wahlberg and DeCaprio. Then I saw the reviews after it’s opening weekend. I was floored. You mean it’s actually a good movie too, I thought?
So I mortgaged my house, put Amy in the truck and went to pay my ransom at the North Hills theater last night. Man, I’d have paid $100. I was getting worried. The best movie I’ve seen in the last two years was unexpectedly “Unite 93”. I was beginning to lose hope in Cinema ever being creative or original again. Martin Scorcese could die tomorrow and he’d never have to worry if he made his best movie possible. This story and the acting are incredible. Now, if you’re one of these people eagerly entertained by low-ball Sci-Fi garbage, the likes of Tim Burton’s weirdo crap, or “dark” comic movies like Batman Forever (which wasn’t bad) you won’t gush over the highly intense dialog in a Scorsese film. But if your down with Goodfella’s, buckle your seat belt.
The most surprising role and acting in the movie came from Wahlberg. I knew he’s been coming into his own as a great actor. Now he’s freakin’ A list. Cruise and Hanks are old news now. If you thought of DeCaprio and Walhberg as over-rated fantasies of mid-80’s boy band worshipers, times up. They will set records for demand in Hollywood after this. I mean hell, in this movie they shove in your face the fact they can act. Damon rocks too, but of course he’s a little more established than Wahlberg and believable than Decaprio in hard-core leads (until now). Still he does not disappoint for a minute.
I’ve often said the one thing that makes acting great is when you forget the actor. You don’t recognize Decaprio but instead only know Billy Costigan, the under cover cop in over his head. These guys are bringing back acting skills not seen in decades for this film. They had to use actual drama in this incredible dialog to pull this film off. This is not a movie about pretty faces and action scenes (queue Tom Cruise). Martin Sheen is even impressive. The only thing that negatively effects the film is Nicholson. He can’t check his ego at the door. But at least he seemed crazy enough for me to buy him as a homicidal gang leader.
I can’t just leave it at recommending this movie. If you’re a gangster movie fan at all it’s your responsibility to see it. And someone’s going to have to pull of one hell of a film to beat it come Oscar time. Apparently I’m not alone in this opinion with back to back record weekends at the box office.