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Martin Scorsese's return to the world of crime has become the best-reviewed major film of the year, generating some notable Oscar buzz (ironic because The Departed is the first film he's made in a while that doesn't seem to be fishing for awards). A remake of the excellent Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, The Departed is good but it isn't vintage Scorsese. It's also probably not quite as good as the original, either, mainly due to the fact that Infernal Affairs was a good 40 minutes shorter. The Departed feels a bit flabby and over-convoluted at points. I also found, surprisingly, that there was some erratic editing, with a lot of intercutting that tended to just disrupt the flow (at least, that's what I felt). However, it does have moments of typical Scorsese brilliance, mostly involving violence, and also some good tension building. The acting is pretty excellent across the board, and with a cast like this that's exactly what you'd expect (that includes DiCaprio, who is actually a standout). I liked the scale of the story, I liked the atmosphere, I even quite liked the ending, despite that being picked out as a flaw by some of the critics; it just didn't quite hum along as smoothly as I'd expected it to. Still, as the four star rating suggests, I thought it was really good.
The summary
The Departed is an excellent crime thriller, with a compelling premise and a great twisty plot. Perhaps slightly too long and padded, but always engrossing.
