As I write this review, in less than twelve hours we’ll discover if this movie wins Best Picture at the Academy Awards, or if Martin Scorsese wins his first Best Director.  I need to be careful with this review, because the plot has a lot of twists and turns, and I am sure many of you have yet to see it.

If The Godfather gets a 10, and if Goodfellas gets a 9, this movie is more like a 7.  I don’t know what I expected, but with all the hype surrounding the film perhaps my expectations were too high.  It feels overlong, and to be honest this was NOT Scorsese’s best directing work.  The performances are decent, but you’ve seen all these actors better in other films (except Mark Wahlberg, this is the best I’ve seen him).  The story focuses on mob boss Jack Nicholson, and the efforts of the State Police to infiltrate his crew and bring him down…and, likewise, Nicholson’s efforts to infiltrate the SIU with a mole.  Who lies, and for what reason, and when is it okay to do so?  These topics are tread upon but the necessities of the plotline keep us from really going deep into them. 

To be honest, while I wanted to see how the story tied up its loose ends, I didn’t care for any of the characters one way or another.  Succeed or fail, live or die, it didn’t matter to me.  I don’t know if my personal experiences clouded my views too much or not.  Suffice to say, I enjoyed the movie but I didn’t LOVE it.  Let me know what you thought!