The Departed

Ben and I just watched The Departed last night with his parents. It was a pretty good movie. My first initial reaction though was that there seemed to be an EXCESSIVE amount of swearing in the movie. The F-bomb seemed to be every other word. Do people really talk like that? Kile doesn't watch TV, but he was running around in the beginning and I was disturbed that he was hearing such language.

My prudishness aside, it was a good movie. The movie is based on the Hong Kong thriller, Infernal Affairs, which I've always wanted to watch, but never got around too. This remake by Martin Scorsese is set in Boston and stars tons of big name people including Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, and Alec Baldwin. Matt Damon plays a cop (Colin Sullivan) who is really a rat for the Irish Mob Boss played by Jack Nicholson (Frank Costello). Leonardo DiCaprio is a cop (Billy Costigan) who has infiltrated Costello's crime ring. Both rats are trying to find out who the other is, while trying to maintain their undercover identities. Both are also in love with the same woman, Madalyn.

Spoilers Ahead

The one thing I didn't like about the movie (well I guess besides the excessive swearing) was the rushed feeling I had with the ending. Everything happened fast and several loose ends are not tied up. Why did Dignam (Mark Walhberg) kill Sullivan at the very end? How did he know? What was in the envelope Costigan gave Madalyn in case he died? Was it info she passed on to Dignam? Why didn't Costigan try to get a hold of Dignam when Queenan was killed? Who's baby was Madalyn carrying? I want to know! Does anyone have answers?

I liked the conflicted characters and really liked Costigan and was rooting for him. I didn't like Sullivan and wanted him taken down. I didn't like the rat running by the window at the end. It made Gert and I laugh, which I don't think was probably Scorsese's intended response.

It was definitely not a happy movie, but it was an interesting movie - one that I'm still puzzling over the next day, which is always a sign of a good movie for me.