Review: The Departed (2006)
Jerry Saravia
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Viewed on October 13th, 2006
RATING: Four stars
Martin Scorsese is a force to be reckoned with. He is not just a
solid director who makes movies better than almost anyone - his films
resonate with an energy and urgency that makes you forget you are
watching a movie. Some of his films have not been well-received by
critics, in particular "Gangs of New York" or the "The Aviator" or the
much maligned and misunderstood "Bringing Out the Dead." "The
Departed," though, has already received numerous accolades from
critics and audiences may warm up to it as well. They should because
"The Departed" is one of Scorsese's great films, a supercharged,
thoroughly intense crime drama that may well give the genre a more
vivid, urgent spin than it ever has.
Leonardo DiCaprio is Bill Costigan, a troubled new recruit to the
police force who is commissioned by Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen)
to become a mole. "You won't get a regular cop pay but there is
a bonus," says Queenan. The job is to be a mole inside an organized
crime syndicate led by the maniacal Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson),
the racist mob boss who rules South Boston with an iron fist. Costello
shows contempt for anyone of any race, creed or color - he shows
little love for nuns too. Costigan has to appear as someone who's just
been released from jail and kicked out of the force. By impressing
Costello with his volatile nature, Costigan can help the state police
bust Costello for numerous homicides.
Ah, but there is a little problem. Costello has his own mole in the
police department, a man he has nurtured since childhood. That
is Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), a cop with aspirations but without
an ounce of remorse as to whom he hurts to get there. He is in
close contact with Costello every step of the way. He knows
there is a mole in Costello's syndicate, and he also has to find the
mole in the police department as assigned by Ellerby (Alec Baldwin),
the head of the task force on organized crime. So what we have
here is a cat-and-mouse game where the mole is trying to find the
mole, and where one mole has to find himself.
Based on "Infernal Affairs" and on the famous Boston mobster Whitey
Bulger, "The Departed" takes a few steps further than a conventional
thriller. It is about the loss of identity in characters pretending and
acting their way out of situations to the point where their real identity
doesn't seem to exist. Costigan is seemingly a hooligan, a tough
kid who spends too much time inside Costello's world. Is he any
less of a cop by pretending to be a gangster or is he clueless about
where his loyalty lies? Same with Frank Costello, the truly nefarious
mob boss who seems like an unhappy man with no real ambitions
beyond what he has already accomplished. He has women, drugs
and everyone fears him. You get the impression Costello wants
more out of life, but what exactly? If, as Costello says in the opening
voice-over, there is no difference between cops and criminals,
then who can they trust when the loyalty is spread so thin?
The most riveting character is Sullivan, an amoral, highly corrupted
cop working for Costello. Sullivan falls for a police psychiatrist (Vera
Farmiga, in the only underdeveloped role in the movie) yet, in one
highly unsettling scene, he tells her that if she moves in with him,
she can't place framed photos of herself in the living room. The
reason? Sullivan keeps no pictures of himself in the living room either.
Is he ashamed, guilty, or does he deny his own existence in order
to keep doing his strenuous job?
I think there are far too many positives for "The Departed." For
one, Scorsese has assembled one of the best casts in recent
memory (second only to the glorious repertoire of actors in "Glengarry
Glen Ross"). Leo DiCaprio shows the innermost conflicts of
Costigan beautifully as he strains not to fall apart from his justly
strenuous job. Martin Sheen glows in every scene as Queenan,
who obviously cares for Costigan. Alec Baldwin is commanding in
every scene, perhaps more so in his supporting roles than in
leading ones in recent years. Major heap of praise goes to Mark
Wahlberg, a fiery dynamo of a presence, as the foul-mouthed Sgt.
Dignam - he ignites every scene he's in, even upstaging Sheen
and Baldwin. And what can't one say about Jack Nicholson that
hasn't been said before playing a truly loathsome being to the hilt,
who shows up at standoffs with his orange-tinted sunglasses,
and carries a black dildo with him to porno theatres. He also likes
the opera, and throws cocaine at a woman's butt and says to his
girlfriend, "Now don't move until you are numb." The guy gets
more unhinged as the movie progresses.
But the real star of "The Departed" is Matt Damon, an expert
at showing the duplicitous nature of a character (see "The
Talented Mr. Ripley" for proof). His Sullivan becomes so wrapped
up in his corruptible ways that there is no way back - he is
doomed from the start. Damon is such a likable presence that I
still hoped he would learn from his mistakes and redeem himself.
Of course this never truly happens in a Scorsese film, and as the
movie becomes unbearably tighter and tighter towards a bleak
resolution, we realize Sullivan is past any point of redemption.
Comparing to past Scorsese antiheroes, I don't think I've seen
a character as fatalistic as this one. I hope Damon is remembered
at Oscar time.
Sure, anyone else could have stepped in and directed "The
Departed" with enough finesse and surefootedness. But Scorsese
infuses his film with such sweat-inducing, unbreakable tension and
such ferocity and verve that your palms will sweat and your knuckles
will whiten. The shootouts are never gratuitous and always surprising
(this film has its share of violence but it is not as violent as "Casino" or
"GoodFellas"). The pacing is erratic and propulsive from one scene to
the next. There are a couple of shots of Christ paintings to show that
Scorsese is always thinking of the religious underpinnings of essentially
a tragedy of unexpected depth. Tough-as-nails, emotionally and
dramatically intense and completely in-your-face with gallows humor
and some lighter humor as well, not to mention a fairly tight pace that
will quicken the nerves and make your heart skip a few beats, "The
Departed" is further proof that Scorsese can make a crime thriller better
than anyone.
For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at:
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Tim Voon
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 2006 Timothy Voon
4 out of 5 stars
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg,
Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga, Alec Baldwin
Director: Martin Scorsese
Screenplay: William Monahan, based on the screenplay Infernal Affairs
by Alan Mak and Felix Chong
Let's begin by saying that much of my admiration for Martin
Scorsese's work rests in the camps of 'The Age of Innocence' and
'The Aviator' and not so much in the camp of 'Goodfellas'. I
believe his craft and subtlety of story telling in the fore mentioned,
speaks volumes more to me personally than those that were delivered at
the point of a gun with the exception of 'The Departed'.
At heart, 'The Departed' is a gangster, good cop bad cop movie
based on theHong Kong action flick 'Infernal Affairs'. This movie
plays out like a game of chess where you cannot predict the ending from
the first few moves of the board; and like a game of chess, the major
pieces are guarded by the pawns until they have to be sacrificed in a
bloodbath of bullets in order to win the game.
The strength of this movie lies not so much in how it started or ended,
but within the journey of gradual suspense building and story telling
that is unique to Scorsese. The audience is slowly drawn into this
movie as he teases us with a dramatic situation - who will catch the
informer placed in their camp first? Leonardo Di Caprio is the police
plant in the gangster mob, and Matt Damon is the gangster mole in
uniform. This tension created by Scorsese is in my mind the most
exciting part of the film. It is this literal tug-o-war and dance of
wit and cunning between Damon and Di Caprio that shapes some of this
movie's finer moments. You can literally see the strain on their
faces, as each is placed at risk of exposure when one compromising
situation rises up after another.
Di Caprio is excellent as he teeters on the verge of a breakdown when
with each passing moment his cover could be exposed. This nicely
contrasts Damon's portrayal of a slick corporate cop who handles his
tough situations with quick thinking and innovation. Nicholson isn't
wasted as the blood thirsty gangster mob boss, and Sheen and Wahlberg
give strong supporting performances.
Reflecting on this movie, I would surmise that if it had been directed
by anyone else or carried a less talented cast it may have been labeled
'just another English remake of a foreign film'. However, Scorsese
can be confident that this movie will not fall into this category, as
he has stamped it with his own personal trade mark of well directed
movies.
Timothy Voon
Email - winkl...@hotmail.com
Web - http://us.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?Tim+Voon