Rating: 
Martin Scorsese’s remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs has some excellent acting (Leonardo DiCaprio better than I’ve seen him before) and dodgy accents (Ray Winstone), is faced paced and looks good. But although the story is gripping, it seems empty and devoid of any real emotional substance. In the Hong Kong movie that was kind of OK – I felt like I was just watching another Hong Kong cop film. But with the gravitas of Scorcese’s directing and the wealth of acting talent, it just made the film seem a bit throw-away. A lot of pointless violence.
Hi Ben,
I thought that “it seems empty” was very much the film’s strong point and I was completely hooked on the ‘emptiness’ and darkness of the characters and the, at times, apparent lack of emotion. As far as being “devoid of emotional substance”, what film did you watch? I am not into violence in films and shy away from them but at no point did I think that was just pointless violence. There was more graphic depiction than might be absolutely necessary, however, it was never gratuitous.
You fail to mention the stunning performance of Matt Damon and legendary performance of Jack Nicholson. I thought Di Caprio was better in ‘The Aviator’ but that is by the by as he is brilliant here to. This film was filled with multi level character development, plots, sub plots and sub zero sub plots. It was rich in colour and intensity and had me sat on the edge of my seat from very early on. My one gripe of the film would be that it sometimes felt that it was almost a film I had seen before – but my goodness was this is a good one and I would not throw it away and look forward to my next viewing.
Well, about emotional substance: I guess I just meant that I didn’t really feel emotionally engaged by the film. For me one way I can enjoy a film I enjoy is if it affects my emotions and carries me along on a ride of some kind – say ‘Shawshank Redemption’, for example, or ‘Last King of Scotland’. And I didn’t find anything like this with ‘The Departed’ – it just didn’t really touch me. Of course a film can be good on other grounds – maybe intellectual or metaphysical interest, such as in ‘The Matrix’ – but ‘The Departed’ didn’t have anything like this for me either.
Maybe ‘A lot of pointless violence’ was a bit of a strong comment. I will revise it to ’slightly excessive violence’. Anyway, glad you liked it.