Yes, Yes, I only saw The Departed for the first time tonight. I normally like crime drama’s, but for some reason this one never seemed to catch my attention, even though I have had the movie for quite some time now, I never gave it a watch. I will start off by saying, I DID LIKE THE FILM (hence the 7/10), but I did have some major critiques as well! I figured I would start where the film really shined. I am not a fan of either Leonardo DiCaprio OR Matt Damon (or Mark Wahlberg for that matter), which was probably some of the reason I never wanted to see the film in the first place. I have to say I was impressed by the acting was the most impressive piece to the film. DiCaprio and Damon both did fantastic, as well as Jack Nicholson (but that is to be expected).

The plot is where the film lost me a bit. I felt there were parts that were a bit too convoluted and parts of the plot seemed “convenient” at times. For example, William keeps escaping exposure by Frank and his men more times than humanly possible, which made the rest of the plot seem not very believable. Also, the fact that they would never question Sullivan as a potential suspect in the department also seems a bit ouf of reach. I would also like to know what ended up happening to the letter that William gave to the counselor — i can only assume it was the tapes that were also sent to Sullivan, but it is never actually verified. Parts of the film felt like they were on fast forward and other parts felt dragged out. I did like the overall premise of the film though, the situation of 2 undercovers working on diametrically opposed sides of the law, but there were parts of the film, I just had to stop and say “what the hell”.

I’m not upset that I waited so long to see it, but at the same time glad that I did (partially just so I can say that I did). The film had some really great moments, and I loved the character development and acting in the film. The story seemed a bit strained at parts, but luckily other aspects of the film overshadowed that for me). I would say it is worth a watch, probably not worth a re-watch though.

Trailer