The Departed

Rating

Director

Martin Scorsese

Screenplay

William Monahan (Screenplay Infernal Affairs by Alan Mak, Felix Chong)

Length

151 min.

Starring

Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga, Anthony Anderson, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Corrigan

MPAA Rating

R (For strong brutal violence, pervasive language, some strong sexual content and drug material)

Review

Based on the famed Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, Martin Scorsese brings a Bostonian twist to the story with a glossy look into organized crime as two moles try to ferret out the “traitor”.

Newly graduated police officer Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio), thanks to his troubled childhood, is tapped to infiltrate the crime organization run by Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). His mission is known only to Oliver Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Officer Dignam (Mark Wahlberg). Costello has his own spy within the department, a young detective named Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon). Both groups are trying to figure out who’s leaking information and who the rat in the organization is.

What follows is a sometimes clever, sometimes rudimentary cat and mouse game that leads to some of the year’s better performances and a much needed return to the crime genre for Scorsese. The film has nothing on his past films like Taxi Driver but it is often a thrilling exercise in genre filmmaking.

DiCaprio delivers one of his finest performances in a rather impressive career. He may have once been the heartthrob that helped sell Titanic to billions, but under the helpful tutelage of Scorsese (who cast him in previous efforts Gangs of New York and The Aviator), he has become one of the most bankable actors in terms of quality performance even if the film in which he appears isn’t that great.

Carefully balancing himself against the more charismatic DiCaprio, Damon manages to deliver a fine performance, though he remains one of those actors I don’t particularly enjoy watching but can tolerate. Though he can perform this type of role in his sleep, Jack Nicholson is a delight to watch as he seemingly capers across the screen with little concern for his character.

The film’s three best performances, however, come from the supporting cast. Alec Baldwin is disarmingly funny as Detective Ellerby. His humorous quips save several sections of potentially dreadful material. Sheen gives the kind of performance you don’t often expect from him after 7 years as President of the United States on The West Wing. It’s an engaging character that suits him perfectly. Completing the trifecta is singer-turned-actor Mark Wahlberg. Though his singing career was a limited success, Wahlberg has blossomed as an actor I enjoy watching. After stellar work in Boogie Nights and Three Kings, it’s hard to imagine him as anything more than an actor. And here he makes an interesting character seem even more so.

One of the most infuriating things about a film like this and with a filmmaker like Scorsese is when a character disappears from the show after a potentially intriguing plot development and the entire event is left dangling. Vera Farmiga plays Madolyn, a shrink that acts as the only direct link between Costigan and Sullivan. Late in the film, Costigan gives her a package that she’s not supposed to open unless he disappears. He definitely disappears for a time but the package never resurfaces. We can assume it does by the film’s final events but the actual event along with the entire character of Madolyn vanishes never to be seen again much to the chagrin of an audience that had become invested in the interesting dynamic between her and the two leads.

Why Scorsese would choose to adapt an existing feature is suspect at best. Can he bring anything new to the material other than American flavor? No. He doesn’t fail to deliver an entertaining picture but many recent directors have delivered similar works and this is certainly no more exciting than William Friedkin’s The French Connection. This picture feels like old hat.

When Scorsese directs a new film, that film is immediately surrounded by Oscar buzz whether deserved (The Aviator) or not (Gangs of New York). People are so concerned with honoring this legendary director for past work that they often forgive measures of mediocrity. While The Departed isn’t mediocre in the least, it is little more than pop entertainment with a few twists thrown in. It isn’t inspirational, topical or important, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, other directors this year have turned in finer and more accomplished work. This is closer to vintage Scorsese but he’s done so much better in the past it seems a shame to honor him now for some of his lightest work in decades.

Review Written

February 1, 2007