yeah, especially for leo's character, there just was no real emotional investment. he wanted his "indentity back" but all the events leading up to that didn't really lead to me believing or caring about his desperation. damon's character arc really works, everything about his character is brilliantly concieved. also i liked how the biggest asshole in the movie seems to be the sole honorable one left at the end.
now it becomes one of "those" reviews. it was tough for me to really enjoy this like i enjoy most scorsese movies, cause of the setting. everytime there was a reference to something i knew, it took me out of the movie. dicaprio's character grew up on the north shore: crap i'm from there! dicaprio's uncle jackie was a bookie from somerville: holy crap, i grew up there. they dumped his body on 128: i drive that road all the time! sheen meets dicaprio on the red line: i always ride the red line! and so on and so on. i dunno, but it almost seemed like these forced attempts to seem authentic, maybe its just cause i'm from the region and every reference stuck out to me.
plus i hated that theme that scorsese uses, the one that comes up during the title and the one that is used in all the commercials. what is that the dropkick murphys? a rare example where scorsese just uses the completely wrong music.
SPOILERS
on to those last moments... i thought that ending was amazing, mostly cause of damon's "okay." not only does it capture a region's lexicon and general mindset so perfectly in one word, but it just struck me as incredibly sad and fulfilling. a moment of great understanding where damon's character has just reached this moment of quiet resignation and all he can say is "okay." moments like these, including when they have that long silence on the phone, this is what makes scorsese the master. as a whole, i felt these moments were missing from the movie.