To some extent, the rapturous reviews greeting Martin Scorsese's new picture The Departed are understandable. Like Spike Lee's Inside Man from earlier in the year, it's the work of a filmmaker who usually traffics in grander themes going through the motions with a star-studded crime melodrama. But because Scorsese and Lee are both so talented, they work the materials like the pros they are, and the results are something that is so rare in Hollywood movies these days: They're actually entertaining.
But come on. I've read reviews of The Departed--actual reviews by actual critics who should know better, not the online ramblings of infatuated fanboys--that speak of its "Shakepearian drama" and "Mametesque dialogue." Shakepearean? Well, lots of people die. David Mamet? They say "fuck" a lot. Otherwise, no.
Given Scorsese's participation, it seems a lot of critics are trying to make this be something it's not. It's not deep, emotionally or intellectually. It's a pretty good time-killer, made with an unusually high level of craftsmanship. TV series like The Sopranos or The Wire do crime drama with a far higher level of nuance, and far less contrivance. But The Departed is all artifice--not only are the above-the-title actors--Jack Nicholson (relentlessly hammy), Leonardo DiCaprio (okay but uninteresting) and Matt Damon (terrific)--all Movie Stars, but even the supporting actors, like Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen and Alec Baldwin, are all Familiar Faces. There's no chance to forget that you're watching a movie, and thanks to plot devices that wouldn't pass muster in an old Jimmy Cagney-Pat O'Brien melodrama--would you believe that DiCaprio and Damon, both cops working at cross purposes, would fall for the same girl?--it's not even a movie that tries to hide its theatricality.
Still, if you go in with lowered expectations, it works. It's not deep, it's not profound, it's barely even that interesting. But it's a pretty good time at the movies, and that's not bad.
