| |
|
SPOILERS INCLUDED FOR 'THE DEPARTED' BELOW:
Saw 'The Departed' last night and realised that I'm turning into Comic Store Man. Credits roll, my friend turns to me and asks me what I thought and five minutes later, when he managed to get a word in edgewise, was moved to ask if I'd enjoyed anything at all about the last two hours. I was a little startled because I had thought it was a better than average film overall and I'd had a good time. So why was everything I had to say about this film so negative?
I think the answer is that had I not seen the original first then I would have felt that this was solid Scorsese film, not one of his best, best still better than many out there. There was much to admire, but in the end he was let down by a weakly structured script and a curious belief that DiCaprio has the acting chops of a young DeNiro. There were some entertaining one-liners, Baldwin, Whalberg, Damon and Nicholson were having a ball and Ms.Schoonmaker was on fine form. On the other hand, I have seen the original and this greatly coloured my appreciation of this film. As a remake, I found it impossible to react to the Departed purely on it's own merits.
Am I being unfair to expect more from Scorsese than a straight re-make with American actors and English dialogue? The fact that entires scenes appeared to have been lifted shot for shot from the original jarred me out of the film (the lift doors closing on DiCaprio's body for example). It wasn't quite Van Sant's 'Psycho' but it felt close in places and where it did deviate from the plot - Costello is also a mole, two people know the identity of the undercover cop, e.t.c. - the changes seem only to weaken the story and leave plot holes and loose ends.
As the two leads, Damon seemed to offer a much more nuanced and complex reading than DiCaprio. Where Damon played a man pulled in two directions by his twin roles, conflicted and genuinely drawn to both lives, DiCaprio seemed to rely on facial hair and scowling as a substitute for character. Whalberg was great but just dissapeared until that what-the-fuck ending that seemed tacked on and destroyed what would have been a much more interesting ending for Damon's character. And, in contrast with Patrick, I loathed the opera scene. It seemed to have been lifted from a completely different film and came across as the result of a studio note:
"Marty, Sweetcakes. We've finally got you to do another gangster film and we're all really excited by the first cut. Love it. Just one thing - it's all a little Irish. That mob boss. We love Jack, but test audiences think he's a thug not a proper gangster. Could you have him going to the opera or eating more pasta? And maybe a giant pile of cocaine. We loved it when you did that in 'Scarface'. Thank you.
P.S. What the fuck are you thinking letting Matt live? He's a bad guy. What is this, some artsy Euro-flick? Black hats don't walk. Sort this now!"
Maybe my expectations were too high. I wanted to Scorsese to take the plot hook and spin his own world around it, make it his; not just re-film something that worked fine as it was. It was almost like a Scorsese pastiche - some first time director who'd pitched it to the studio as 'a Hong Kong action thriller as directed by Scorsese'. Either that or he's decided to go down the Coppolla route of 'one for the studio, one for me'.
And again, I'm sounding like I hated it. I didn't. It just could have been so much more. Maybe I just need a Spleenectomy. |
|
|
