The Departed
To the best of my knowledge, there has never been a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio that I've loved. Sure, he's come a long way since Titanic (which, to this day, has always baffled me as to how anyone could like it), but even his more recent critical successes like Catch Me If You Can and The Aviator were only OK for me. So when I say that I loved this movie and, moreover, that I loved him in it, well, that should tell you something. This was definitely the best crime thriller I've seen in a long time. The acting was superb across the board. Heck, even Mark Wahlberg was great. No, really. He was. And as for the story, well, you have here a movie about an Irish Mafia gang and the Massachussetts State Police, each with a mole in the other's organization who needs to figure out who his opposite is without being found out himself. Does that sound intense to you? Well, it is. I had only two complaints with this movie, both about the writing. First, the ending was more than a little abrupt. Second, a somewhat minor plot point failed to get resolved. Those two things, though, were not enough to make me not love this movie and I suspect that while this one will not be the one to end Scorsese's losing streak at the Oscars it has a very strong possibility of adding another title to his list of nominations.
Viewed: 2006-11-09 | Released: 2006-10-05 | Score: A