Midweek Movie Review- The Departed

Usually we save the indulgences for the weekends. We stay up late on Friday or Saturday nights, we eat junky stuff and swear we'll get back in the gym on Monday. We do all the things we don't make time for during the week. I think we should start indulging on Wednesdays, to get us over the hump and motivate us for the rest of the week. Tonight, I left the dishes in the sink and the laundry in the dryer, put on my favorite bumming around outfit, popped some corn, and settled into my favorite spot on the couch to watch....

So let me get this straight. Colin Sullivan (played by the distractingly hot Matt Damon) grew up under the wing of Irish-American mobster Frank Costello (played by the always creepy Jack Nicholson) and has infiltrated the state police to keep the mob one step ahead of the boys in blue. Billy Costigan (played by cutie Leonardo DiCaprio) is an undercover cop who has infiltrated the mob to keep the badges one step ahead of the bad guys. Colin and Billy get absorbed in their double lives and things are going well…. until both sides realize there’s a mole in the midst and then the crossing, double crossing, uncrossing, and every other kind of crossing begins. Oh, and did I mention, they’re both seeing the same woman? That’s crossed up on a whole other level. And, a note to viewers who live with little ears- 237 F bombs in this film. So many that they start to get a little ridiculous and then you tune them out and then you wonder if any word can be hyphenated around an F bomb, sort of like a little F bomb word sandwich...

The Departed is a tangled up hot mess, made a bit warmer by a fantastic cast that also includes Mark Wahlberg (who, by the way, has a terrible haircut but looks dang fine in a shoulder holster), Martin Sheen, and Alex Baldwin. At 2.5 hours, this movie twists and turns more than the Loch Ness Monster roller coaster at Busch Gardens. Once you hit Play, don’t get up because if you do, you’ll miss something and be forever lost. You’ll check your watch with about 20 minutes left and wonder how Director Martin Scorsese could possibly tie up all the loose ends. And then when he does, you’ll be surprised that two gripping hours of cat and mouse can end that way. And, you'll have one final lingering question, or at least I did. 

I don’t know if it was the day I had today or the intensity in which I had to focus my attention on this movie but friends, I’m exhausted. I didn’t realize that a good guy pretending to be a bad guy and a bad guy pretending to be a good guy could be so much to keep up with.