The Departed- run do not walk to see this movie.

Cafe Society
21

I saw it yesterday and absolutely loved it. It’s the best movie I’ve seen in a while. After reading all the reviews, I couldn’t help but have my expectations pretty high, it easily surpassed them.

However, I do have two questions that are slightly bothering me.

  1. It was shown at the beginning that Matt Damon had at least known Jack Nicholson for a while. Wouldn’t that have come up in the background check before Damon became a “Statie?” I would guess that usually they don’t want police officers to be longtime associates with crime lords.

  2. I’m guessing that the State Police Officers make more money than regular uniforms, but I didn’t think that they would make enough to get that amazing apartment that Damon had. My friends pointed out that he was probably making money working for Nicholson, but I thought that was one of the major red flags for a department to figure out that a cop must be corrupt if he has a large amount of unexplainable money. At least that’s what I learned from Law & Order.

Neither of those questions are really plot holes, and they certainly don’t detract from my enjoyment of the movie, but I was wondering about them and hoping someone knew or figured out an explanation to them.

22

re: abbeytxs’s question:

My assumption was that is was a letter and information to be sent to Marky Mark, because he was the only one that Costigan knew he could trust. And I think we saw enough of Marky Mark to know that he would handle the situation when it got that far out of hand.

23

Sam,

[spoiler]In answer to your first question, I’m not really sure but I just assumed that Damon had been cultivated since childhood to produce a “clean” background and that Jack had helped to make sure that Matt would not be known as an associate, have a record or work directly for his crew. His job was to go to school, get good grades and look like a model citzen.

In answer to the second, Matt told the realtor that he had a “cosigner” when he bought the apartment. I assumed that Jack was the cosigner (or had arranged for someone else to be), but not that he was giving Matt any money directly at that point. I guess it still leaves a question of how Matt would have explained the opulence of his crib to other cops but I suppose he could have just given them some bullshit story about a family member cosigning for him and they probably wouldn’t have investigated it too deeply.[/spoiler]

24

Thank you Diogenes and Kiros for your replies.

I pretty much assumed that there might have been more to that storyline but that it ended up on the cutting room floor. It didn’t ruin my enjoyment of the movie or anything, but I think it could have made for a slightly better ending.

Still an awesome movie.

25

Definitely an excellent movie. Great story, great dialogue, good acting (Leo usually grates on me, but I thought he was okay in this one, Marky Mark was entertaining, but I felt that was more due to how his character was scripted than to him).

My complaints:[spoiler]I agree that the ending felt tacked on. What was in the envelope? How did Marky Mark find out Damon was the bad guy? Yeah, Shrink-Lady could have given Marky the envelope which obviously had some sort of damning information in it, but they should’ve dropped a thirty second scene in to clarify both points.

Also, why did Matt Damon kill everyone by the elevator? Bad Cop II killed no-talent-pretty-boy, which helped out Damon, Damon killed Bad Cop II presumably because he knew too much, but why kill Fat Cop? He didn’t know what was going on; all Damon had to do was say “Hey, Bad Cop II was the mole, and he shot Pretty Boy and Pretty Boy shot him back!” Case closed.[/spoiler]
But those are nitpicks. I’m definitely picking up this movie when it comes out on DVD, and I’ll probably see it again in the theatre.

26

Asylum:

Bad Cop II killed both Leo and Fat Cop (in that order). Matt Damon only killed Bad Cop II, because of Damon’s (almost overzealous) obsession that no one know who he is.

27

Yeah, my GF pointed out that I got that wrong. However,

Why’d Bad Cop II kill Fat Cop? They could’ve claimed that Leo was the bad guy all along. Fat Cop saw Leo take Damon at gun point down in the elevator after all.

28

Diogenes, I think you’re right about Sullivan.That is, that Frank Costello was careful to keep Colin Sullivan’s record clean so that he could grow up and be a mole. When Sullivan (Matt Damon) is talking to Ellerby (Alec Baldwin) at the driving range, Ellerby says something like “You’ve got an impeccable record. Some people don’t trust a guy with an impeccable record, but I do.”

A lot of movies have a scene where you briefly see what a character is watching on television. It is virtually never a tv show; it’s almost always an old movie, and not one picked at random. In the scene where Costigan busts in on a snitch and roughs him up until the snitch gives up that Costello works with the FBI, the tv is on and an old movie is playing. You only see a couple of seconds, but I recognized it.

John Ford’s 1935 The Informer. Not surprising that Scorsese is a John Ford fan.

29

The only way for Wahlberg to know that Damon was the Mole is if the psychiatrist told him. As soon as she heard about Costigan’s death she opened the envelope, which told her to go to Wahlberg with the story.

30

I honestly think the ending for this version may have been done for people who saw the original. As if they changed it just enough to keep us on our toes. You’d have to see the original (with the far superior ending in my opinion) to understand what I mean. I just thought it was totally just teasing us, haha.

31

Oh, excellent stuff.

I left work early on Friday to see it, and then saw it again on Saturday.

Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg were great in this. Baldwin is the undisputed king of the supporting role.

I agree with the other poster about the humor in this movie.

Baldwin, “this is his last known photo.”

Wahlberg, “I’m the guy who’s doing his job. You must be the other guy.”

The guy who played French was excellent, too.

It felt really tight for a movie with so many “climaxes”. Nicholson kept it reined in enough so that the other characters were allowed to shine. There were so many excellent moments in this that sprang from the writing and the acting. When Costigan first meets Costello and tells him his father died. . .

“How did he go?”

“Complaining”

“Yeah, that was his problem.”

“I didn’t say he had a problem.”

Funny, tense, establishing.

I don’t think it was prefect. Some of it I felt like I’d kind of seen before. “Gimme Shelter” has been overused in movies. . .especially for setting up (quote) turbulent times (unquote). For a while, I felt like Di Caprio/Nicholson was just another Di Caprio/Bill the Butcher deal – right down to the reprisal of the torture of Di Caprio (his performance in that scene was very reminiscent of his branding in G.O.N.Y.) I didn’t feel like I really got as much of the Scorcese joie de filme like in Goodfellas (tricks like the long shot of Liotta going through the club) or even in G.O.N.Y. (e.g the drum & flute fight song at the beginning, or any scene with Bill the Butcher). I like it when he goes over the top a little.

I loved the loud Irish rock song montage when he went to prison, and I wished there was a little more of stuff like that.

I thought Di Caprio was better in the Aviator, but he was better here than he was in Gangs. He really gave the movie weight without being obvious about it. Damon’s motivations were easier to understand. . .he was just about power and money (the gold dome was a nice touch), but Di Caprio’s decision to be undercover was harder to understand. He did it well.

That’s nitpicking though. Super movie. Totally entertaining. A movie that just kept the tension ratcheted up, and then ratheted it higher. . .with just enough interludes to let you catch your breath.

32

I think he has a great chance at getting as Oscar for this, as there aren’t a lot of Oscar worthy films out so far this year, so unless there a lot lined up, as usual, for the end of the year, he may have a shot. It would feel anti-climactic, but it would still be cool.

33

Thanks for your reply. Both those answers make sense.

34

My wife and I went to see it with another couple Friday night and I absolutely loved it. My wife, who really got into *Goodfellas *and Casino, wasn’t as thrilled but still liked it. She thought it was too long!!!
I loved the dual nature of everyone:

DiCaprio = mobster vs undercover cop
Damon = statie vs mob mole
Nicholson = mob boss vs FBI informant
Vera Farmiga (Madolyn) = loyal fiancée vs cheating girlfriend
Whalberg = the foulmouthed, abrasive boss vs supportive and concerned
Even Nicholson’s girlfriend had the whore vs saint dichotomy
I loved the humor and Whalberg and Baldwin were hilarious. Nicholson’s rat imitation just about made me pee my pants.
I think the envelope DiCaprio gave to the shrink was actually proof of who he really was. If you remember the scene where he was sitting in his mother’s home after her funeral he was going through his childhood photos. Then when he goes to the shrink’s place he is interested in her childhood picture and hung it on the wall. I think the envelope had his childhood pictures and proof that he was not the crook she thought he was. He told her if he died she could open it or if he called her (which would mean he had taken care of everything and she could safely know the truth).
My only gripes with the movie were pretty minor:

1. The pregnancy. It was an unneeded item that went nowhere. I mean she tells Damon she is pregnant and then he mentions it at the funeral. Are we really supposed to care who the father is? Is this supposed to make her wonder? It could have been left out.
2. The rat on the railing at the end. Did Scorsese think he had to slap us across the face and say, “There are rats everywhere,” when it seemed pretty obvious?
3. The idea that only Sheen and Whalberg would know the identity of DiCaprio. Hasn’t this idea been done to death?
Overall, though, I thought the movie kicked-ass. Scorsese has done an excellent job with the various mob personas: Italian, Irish and even Jewish (remember Casino). Who’s next on his hit list?

35

a question about Costello’s drawing

When Costello was drawing while quesioning Costiagan about leaving after filling out the questionaire, did the picture he drew look like rats and the gold dome within view of Sulivans apartment? Of course Costello would not of had know the relationship between Sulivan and the dome.

36

Why wouldn’t he? Sullivan was Costello’s mole and it was implied that Costello had helped him get the apartment.

37

Vera Farmiga won the Best Actress award from the LA Film Critics last year for Down to the Bone, a film that barely made it into theaters at all, but is worth checking out.

I thought it was terrific and indeed Marty’s best film since Goodfellas. Not a weak link in the cast, but it’s always great to see actors you know can be good (Wahlberg, Baldwin) shine since they’re not always in parts that play them to best advantage.

Ray Winstone (Mr. French) is probably best known for another funny/violent/crime pic, Sexy Beast.

I think it’s better than the original, with better dialogue and a richer color pallette (kudos to the terrific Michael Ballhaus), though like in the original, the best performance is by the guy playing the cop-turned-crime-mole (Tony Leung & DiCaprio). I think the original handled the surveillance setpiece better (as well as the “fall”), but this one had more emotional weight and character color (and the device of the shared romance didn’t play as a contrivance the way I thought it might).

I think great reviews notwithstanding, this’ll pick up a few nominations, but probably not enough to make an impression: Screenplay & Editing certainly, Scorsese wouldn’t surprise me, nor would DiCaprio, but Picture would (unless this coming fall/winter round-up proves surprisingly weak).

I liked the little Third Man tribute at the end, too. Plus, “Patriot Act, Baby!”

So, do you think the baby is Leo’s?

38

ArchiveGuy. . .

[spoiler]I think the baby is leos. Scorcese gave us the hot sex scene, but also don’t forget that there was the scene where the woman was saying to Damon, "don’t worry, it happens to a lot of guys.

I think that was scorcese telling us it was leo’s without actually showing us the result of a DNA test. [/spoiler]

39

The reason I think the very end was fitting and was absolutely foreshadowed:

Leo tells Matt in the elevator, when Matt says “just kill me already!” that in fact he WILL kill him. My feeling is that Leo knew very well he might die in the attempt to bring Matt in, as also evidenced by the delivery of the envelope to the shrink with instructions to open in a couple weeks, but Leo also felt confident that he had secured Matt’s death one way or another. I even expected, for a second, that the shrink might be the one doing the killing, tho that would have been out of character for her. I momentarily forgot about Wahlberg, which seemed to be the case in the audience I attended with—everyone in the place GASPED when the scene played out.

Great, great movie.

–Beck

40

Just saw this one in Hong Kong last Friday night. (Hong Kong has both censorship and a different rating system, so the movie most likely lacked some stuff you’d see in the US and Canada.) I liked it overall but didn’t like all the killing.