The Departed Sweeps Boston Film Critics

In a wildly unsurprising turn, The Departed, Martin Scorsese's cop-drama swept the Boston Film Critics awards taking home honors for Picture, Director, and my personal favorite-- Supporting Actor for ol'Marky Mark Wahlberg among others.

Best Picture: The Departed (United 93, runner-up)

Best Director: Martin Scorsese, The Departed (Paul Greengrass, United 93, runner-up)

Best Actor: Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland (Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson, runner-up)

Best Actress: Helen Mirren, The Queen (Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal, runner-up)

Best Supporting Actor: Mark Wahlberg, The Departed (TIE: Michael Sheen, The Queen; Alec Baldwin, The Departed/Running with Scissors/The Good Shepherd, runners-up)

Best Supporting Actress: Shareeka Epps, Half Nelson (Meryl Streep, The Devil Wore Prada, runner-up)

Best Ensemble Cast: United 93 (The Departed, runner-up)

Best Screenplay: William Monahan, The Departed (Peter Morgan, The Queen, runner-up)

Best Foreign Language Film: Pan's Labyrinth (Volver, runner-up)

Best Documentary: TIE: Deliver Us From Evil/Shut Up & Sing (51 Birch Street, runner-up)

Best New Filmmaker: Ryan Fleck, Half Nelson (Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, Little Miss Sunshine, runners-up)

Best Cinematography: Guillermo Navarro. Pan's Labyrinth (TIE: Stuart Dryburgh, The Painted Veil; Xiaoding Zhao, Curse of the Golden Flower, runners-up)

THE HOLIDAY

Directed by Nancy Meyers. Starring Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Jack Black.

Every holiday season, a wonderfully clichéd feel-good comes along that is just a bit more charming than the rest of the season's garb out there. 2004 brought us Richard Curtis's delightful Love Actually, and last year we received The Family Stone -- an unorthodox Christmas joy. This year, The Holiday comes along wrapped in a beautiful package very similar to the latter. Writer-director Nancy Meyers (What Women Want, Something's Gotta Give) may not get everything right, but when she does it warms your heart leaving you with no choice but to smile.

In England, Iris (Kate Winslet), a writer for The Daily Telegraph, has spent her years in self-proclaimed unrequited love with and grotesquely egotistical co-worker (Rufus Sewell) who has finally chosen to break her heart by announcing his engagement. In Los Angeles, Amanda is an overpaid movie trailer produced who has just dumped her handsome, yet unfaithful beau (Edward Burns) and searches online to find a tranquil place to spend her winter holiday. Turning down offers in the likes of Bora Bora, she settles on a darling little cottage residing in Surrey, England-- the house of the aforementioned Iris. The two then switch houses looking to get away from the respective men in their lives only to come across two new ones-- Amanda with Graham (Jude Law), Iris's ridiculously charming brother, and Iris with Miles (a surprisingly well-cast Jack Black) as a sympathetic composer going through his own romatic endevours.

And you know the rest of the story: Iris meets lonely former-legend screenwriter extraordinare (Eli Wallach, in his best role in years) and aids him in jump starting his life again and Amanda learns a few interesting secrets of Graham's life, la di da di da. The Holiday diminishes only in the film's final moments of overt sap, yet in the end all that really matters is that you will leave the theatre smiling, lest you have transformed into Scrooge a few hours into this deliciously fluffy entertainent.

7.5/10