Alec Baldwin as a tough guy or Alec Baldwin as the goofy, overplayed boss. Who’s better? In The Departed he’s a tough as nails but somehow less than admirable police captain, while in Along Came Polly he’s the slightly off kilter boss that is so quirky he’s funny. It’s kind of hard to pick between the two since it’s really amusing to see him in both roles. But if I had to pick, my favorite, it would be Captain Ellerby from The Departed. It’s not an easy pick really since in both films he plays a sound role that sees him become a very notable and likable character in some regard. But for my money I would say that Captain Ellerby is one of Baldwin’s better characters in the past several movies he’s been in.
Of course that’s not taking anything away from his role in Along Came Polly. As Reuben’s boss he’s still a character that you can’t help but laugh at as he does so many small things that Reuben finds absolutely irritating. Honestly, what guy wouldn’t be creeped out by his boss first passing gas while he’s standing right next to him and then rubbing his earlobe after doing his business? Some guys might be able to tolerate this for some strange, obscure reason, but I can tell you that I’m not one of them and it looks like Reuben isn’t either.
That doesn’t mean it’s not funny.
On the other hand, Captain Ellerby is easy to laugh at even though The Departed isn’t a comedy in any way, shape, or form. It’s a serious drama in which Baldwin somehow still comes off as comical despite the fact that he’s being quite serious. Such as this clip.
One big mistake made in surveillance is enough to set Ellerby off. He straight up cold cocks the poor tech without so much as a warning and then proceeds to shout his lungs raw at the guy. Call me crazy but I think even being a captain he’d be brought up on assault charges and possibly reprimanded pretty harshly for this. But this is a movie so obviously nothing happens, at least not that we see.
So why Captain Ellerby over Reuben’s boss? That’s pretty simple, it’s all a matter of personal taste. For me Captain Ellerby is more of a realistic character and not so much a caricature like Reuben’s boss is. Captain Ellerby is the working stiff that wants everything to go right, stresses when it doesn’t, and flips his lid when he realizes it’s all because of one person’s screw-up. He’s the average man to be honest, the one that tries to live his life by a code and yet more often than not is forced to compromise in ways that he didn’t expect and didn’t exactly want. In short he’s the kind of guy that we all identify with a lot more simply because he is at a level that we understand and can relate to.
So yeah, Alec Baldwin in The Departed, definitely.
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