Acting game:
In this film 2 male roles of the first plan, 3 male roles of the second plan and one female role that would be worth paying attention to.
Leonardo DiCaprio. When you evaluate roles, you look at how he plays, not who he plays. For me, Gangs of New York and The Aviator will always come first as movies, but DiCaprio was inferior in every film. In the first case to Denis Day-Lewis, in the second to himself, that is, this role of Howard Hughes was not available for him at the moment, although I do not know who could play it. Well, in this film, he surpassed all his previous roles combined. It really showed his fear, it really showed that he was afraid, which was quite natural at the moment, in general, I would say it was his best role. In addition, he played a man not with a simple character, who even had to take calmly, and such a hero is always more difficult to play, and he coped with this task by one hundred percent. When a person is under cover, he is constantly in danger, he walks on the blade of a knife, and this is reliably shown.
Matt Damon. He played the opposite character of DiCaprio. A gangster put into the police. In my opinion, he looked less convincing. But despite all that, I think this role is the best of his career. Still, the role of Bourne and Hunting looked much meager and weaker than the role of Salevan.
Comparative characterization: they can be considered completely opposite characters, but at the same time strikingly similar. They both graduated from police school, both with honors, but their lives were scattered on different sides of the barricades. In my opinion, DiCaprio looked much more convincing, for Damon, if only because the role of Leonardo was much more difficult in terms of entering the image of an unstable person, and he looked more convincing than Matt. Sometimes it even seemed that Damon was not infiltrated into the police, he was a police officer, he did not see the fear that is inherent in such people, I do not think that his hero was some superhero, all people are characterized by fear, and he did not reveal this in his image and for this is hurtful, but in general, if you evaluate their game, then DiCaprio played great, and Damon is great.
Jack Nicholson is as good as ever. He doesn't even have much to say, it's cool. He also played a man who suffered from mental illness. I do not know why many criticize his role, say that in my opinion, everything is gorgeous.
Mark Wahlberg. Well, that's beyond praise. He played a man with a difficult character who was quick-tempered and could say anything to anyone. He was, so to speak, a bad cop. Always rude to everyone, as if he was above all, but in the end he was smarter than everyone, which is what the final scene shows, and it is largely symbolic, because he was the fairest, in my opinion. It's more fair than Quinan.
Martin Sheen. If Wahlberg played a bad cop, Sheen played a good cop. It was less convincing, but still at a fairly high level. His role showed that you can not always rely on yourself and be self-confident. That's what he paid for.
Vera Farmiga. Played a police psychiatrist who believed in the law, and I believe in her play. It looked very convincing. She was the link in the relationship between Costigan and Salevan, although she did not know it, as they themselves.
Directing:
Martin Scorsese’s best work isn’t in terms of film, I have two of his other works, Gangs of New York and The Aviator, in the first place, but in terms of directing. Everything was perfect, all angles were well chosen, and everything, in general, is perfect.
Screenplay:
As everyone knows, Martin Scorsese rarely has movies with a good ending, he always has either everyone killed or almost everyone killed. This film is no exception. I won’t tell you what happened to the main characters, I’ll just say that there was an unexpected ending. In this film, there are many different plot twists that keep you in suspense throughout the film and will not leave anyone indifferent, even though the film is about two and a half hours, you will never get bored. I must say that this is not a new scenario, it is more adapted. A film with such a script already existed, but everything here is much more interesting, more twisted plot, and generally cooler. In addition, there is a great soundtrack.
In the end, according to estimates:
Scenario - 10
Acting game - 10
Directing - 10
Soundtrack - 10
As a result, the perfect film for all indicators, which will not leave anyone indifferent.
10 out of 10
Original