Just when I thought Martin Scorsese was completely washed up he goes and makes a pretty kickass crime movie. Typically I'm pretty bored with crime dramas, as they're the same thing overandover what with the stock tough guy characters, the scintillating moral ambiguity, and the industry standard plot twists. Quite frankly I've just seen enough of them. This movie, though, this movie is different. Okay, so actually it's not different at all. That was a lie. But, what this movie does have going for it is the fact that from top to bottom it's a quality production, making it better formed and more palatable than most other street flicks. In fact, I will say that this is my favorite crime movie since 1997's LA Confidential and my favorite Scorsese film since, Good Lord, who knows when. (I'm sure that most will say Goodfellas, but that movie doesn't tickle any particular soft spot in my heart)
So, what are the particulars of its alleged goodness, then? Let's get down to the nitty gritty. The screenplay was turned in by William Monahan, the dude who wrote 2005's Kingdom of Heaven, and apparently it's a remake of a Hong Kong flick by the name of Infernal Affairs. I haven't seen the original, so I'm not really sure what Monahan did or didn't sup from the corpse of that script; but what we get here is a well constructed and engaging plot, complex characters who develop over the course of the film, and some sharp dialogue that is often missing from many of today's films that could use another polish or two before going in front of the cameras. Nothing here really breaks new ground, as its pretty standard cops and robbers fare, but everything is at least done well. Slightly refreshing was the thriller feel that creeps into the flick several times, taking things in a different direction than most of Scorsese's other crime movies. Tension is built well throughout, and some of the most effective scenes are when that tension is brought to a head.
Marty used his standard crew to shoot and edit this one, and it is artfully filmed and put together like everything else he's done. I think the one thing that you can always count on with one of his films is that it's at least going to look good and the action will be easily followed. The editing gets a little frantic throughout, with sudden jumps back and forth from scene to scene, but all the rules of time and space are followed well enough to keep the action digestible; and it creates the nice little effect of bringing the similarities of situation that DiCaprio and Damon's characters find themselves in to the surface. The characters serve as mirrors of each other, and the way the film is put together reflects that. HAH!
So, I guess that brings us to the acting. There's a huge ensemble cast of big time movie stars going to work here and going in I thought that the movie would crumble under the weight of so many Hollywood faces and look like a parody. But really, from top to bottom everyone does great work here, and if nothing else this movie works as a vehicle for some of today's top actors to play around and show range. The heart of the film is carried by Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon. They play an undercover cop infiltrating a gang and a gang member going undercover in the police force respectively. Both men do fine jobs with, I think, DiCaprio getting the slight edge. Here he is believable as a short fused, drugged out tough guy. This is something I don't think he's been able to accomplish so far in his career and generally I always laugh when he's shown as having fighting prowess (as in Gangs of New York). But here, he shows an explosive rage reminiscent of Joe Pesci's crime work that makes him a believable ass kicker despite his physical shortcomings. Damon isn't given as much to do as he has to play at being a straight laced cop for most of the picture, but when things start to unravel towards the end his character's true mealy mouthed nature starts to peak through his carefully crafted façade in times of desperation and he gets to pull off some pretty cool stuff.
Nicholson is the pizzazz of the film playing the charismatic and crazy gang leader that everyone else's paths revolve around. Jack, of course, is playing his usual sly, smooth talking character here, but he's able to inject a feeling of menace and unhinged lunacy to keep things from getting par for course. Really, in a lot of ways, he's revising his role as the Joker here; but with a more lethal and frightening edge that could have kept Batman from being so crappy. There's a big supporting cast here, and everyone turns in solid and endearing performances. Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin play foul mouthed, manly men characters that shout a lot and say offensive things, and both become crowd favorites early on. Martin Sheen does solid work as the father figure to DiCaprio's character, Ray Winstone gives a subtly cool, understated performance as Nicholson's right hand man, Vera Farmiga does as good as possible as the tacked on girl torn between the two main characters, and Anthony Anderson manages not to annoy me as a side character cop. Perhaps what's most important is that this film is set in Boston and most everyone is doing some sort of variation of that utterly ridiculous Boston accent; but nobody's was so bad that it was distracting me during the film. Truth be told, I was unconsciously dropping my Rs and prefacing all of my adjectives with wicked for a few hours after this thing was over, and it was hella fun.
This film isn't perfect, however, and I did come away with some complaints. Firstly, like I alluded to in the opening paragraph, this thing is nothing more than Standard Crime Movie #362 throughout. Sure, most everything is done well, and it's well worth a viewing, but it lacks any sort of genius reimaginings or pockets of originality that would have made it transcend its genre and become an enduring classic. Secondly, the music throughout seemed pretty obvious and uninspired, and it actually made me roll my eyes a few times. Scorsese sticks mostly to classic rock songs here, but his choices are so obvious that the music loses all intended effect. Sure once upon a time I liked the Stones' Gimme Shelter, but it's so overplayed that it's pretty hackey to put it in a movie; and Scorsese does it twice here. Similarly he keeps playing some annoying Dropkick Murphys song to let us know that we're in Boston, and I kept getting images of a lame old man trying to make his crime movie badass with kicking rock jams. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, this film suffers from the same disorder that many recent Hollywood releases do by being just too long. It's paced well enough that I never actively wanted it to just end; but at two and a half hours I was definitely aware of how long I had been sitting there for the last half hour or so of the movie. If Scorsese really wants to impress me (and I imagine that he does), he'll make a movie that I enjoy that clocks in around an hour and forty or so. Being able to tell an effective story in a condensed time frame is an important skill for a filmmaker to have, and I'm ill and sleepy of these brash big shots thinking they can do whatever the hell they please. Ahem. Seriously though, too long.
