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| Thursday, July 12, 2007 08:54 AM |
| The Rat on the Ledge: Thoughts on The Departed |
 by Fëanor |
I saw this last night at movie night for the first time, thanks to mouserobot. It was actually very, very good. I liked it better than the original Hong Kong film that it's based on (Infernal Affairs). Many excellent characters, much excellent dialogue. Funny, tense, violent, and engaging. The movie night group immediately found and pounced upon the gay subtext surrounding Matt Damon's character, and the more I think about it, the more I like this subtle addition to the movie. Damon's character is portrayed as a liar in every aspect of his life; of course he would lie about his sexuality, too, even to himself.
Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg were particularly good in the film, but really, the entire cast was excellent. There were some stylistic touches in the film that were odd, and I'm not quite sure how I feel about them yet, but I think I like them. I'm referring to some of the unorthodox camera movements, as well as the odd and almost choppy sound and film editing. The story jumped around quite a lot, sometimes throwing a series of images at you so quickly it was hard to even tell what was trying to be conveyed. And at multiple times throughout the film - when a cell phone closed or someone shouted or a gun went off - the music on the soundtrack would cut off suddenly.
Another weird, quirky thing that happened that I'm still not sure how I feel about was the rat on the ledge at the very end. Obviously a pun and a visual metaphor, but seemingly out of place in what was otherwise a very realistic film.
Also, this morning I had a "French donut" for breakfast. Thankfully, Marky Mark did not then come into the office in bagged shoes and gloves to shoot me in the head. At least, not yet... |
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