Three additional thoughts about The Departed that I failed to mention previously:
1) The music: Remember when Martin Scorsese's ability to pick just the right set of songs to convey the spirit of his films was justly celebrated? Things started to slip in Casino with some way too obvious choices, and his caving in to Harvey Weinstein's demands that Elmer Bernstein's score for Gangs Of New York be replaced by Bono's annoying wails was unfortunate, but Scorsese's instincts totally fail him here. The film opens with the Stones' Gimme Shelter, and it's apparently being used to convey a sense of menace. Uh, Mr. Scorsese, sir, the Stones haven't seemed cutting-edge since...well, maybe since you used them in Mean Streets. Yeah, Wes Anderson has made good use of Brian Jones-era songs in his films, but that's to convey a sense of wistful nostalgia, not to seem edgy. And Comfortably Numb? Pathetic.
2) Bad rear projection: Okay, it's probably inserted digitally, rather than an old-fashioned backdrop, but there are numerous scenes in the movie of characters standing in front of windows (Martin Sheen's office, Matt Damon's apartment) with a view outside that looks about as convincing as the view outside Mary's second apartment on The Mary Tyler Moore Show--which is to say, not very convincing at all. I was spending way too much time during these scenes being distracted by the cheesy, unconvincing visuals, and noticing how the light in the rooms didn't match the light outside. Scorsese would probably argue that this was intentional, that it was some sort of hommage to the cheesy backdrops in Anthony Mann's Eagle-Lion releases or something, but it just looked bad.
3) The final shot: Really? A rat? Did we need the prompting?
