Movie Review: The Departed

By Ronald Wilkinson Oct 1, 2006, 5:40 GMT

A remake of the Hong Kong film "Infernal Affairs." Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg star in Martin Scorsese\'s new crime drama "The Departed." "The Departed" is set in South Boston where the state police is waging war on organized crime. Young undercover cop Billy Costigan (DiCaprio) is assigned to infiltrate the mob run by gangland chief Costello (Nicholson). While Billy is quickly gaining Costello\'s confidence, Colin Sullivan ...more

Although there will be claims of wasted talent, Scorsese’s new blockbuster wanna-be combines sizzling dialog with no-holds-barred action for this year’s top-of-the-heap gangster flick

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon as undercover rats in the feral world of organized crime, screenwriter William Monahan has crafted an action thriller that entertains from beginning to end.

The film starts off with fast and furious dialog that gets the characters out of the gate like raging bulls and pulls the audience into the story in real time.  But when it comes to stealing the show, the lead pipe cinch for Oscar nominee for Supporting Actor will go to Jack Nicholson.

Still wild-eyed after all these years, Nicholson trumps the best of both of the Kingsley and Freeman acts in their recent “Lucky Number Sleven” portrayals of hardened mobsters growing old and extremely grumpy.

Nicholson plays aging gangster king-pin Frank Costello, the lion that eats ruthlessness for breakfast.  Sensing an undercover spy in his midst, Costello tells his undercover protégé Colin Sullivan (Damon),”You know, in the past, when something like this happens, I’d just kill everybody.  Kill ‘em all, you know?”

When Nicholson says it, we believe it.
In fact, there is an undercover spy in Costello’s mob, Billy Costigan (DiCaprio).

A rich kid who rejected his corrupt Boston Brahmin family for the questionable legitimacy of the city’s Southie culture, Costigan has a nearly uncontrollable temper and a problematic past. 

He is perfect for both the role and the purpose of the double agent. Damon played the Boston Southie before in “Good Will Hunting” but this is new territory for DiCaprio and he pulls it off OK, although there is something about his frame and features that doesn’t quite click—he’s simply not beat up enough. 

But when it comes to Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen and Mark Wahlberg they are exactly in their element—as blunt as a winter Northeaster and cynical as a defense lawyer.

Mark Walhberg plays the third of the unholy trinity of the two undercover spies and the legitimate cop. He is the gum shoe of gum shoes; the Delta Force of serving and protecting. 

He is an equal opportunity despoiler of dignity and the cloud of vaporous bile that follows his boss Martin Sheen and everybody else from the moment they put on a badge until the moment they are put in a hole.

In terms of pacing, the film establishes such a rapid-fire pace in the beginning that writer Monahan is hard pressed to sustain it to the end.  The excellent acting out of the starting gate seems to take a back seat to the plot twists of the last thirty minutes and we are left wishing the plot stayed more simple and the dialog more intense.

Instead the movie ends with a blood bath of killing that updates the original “Godfather” with the best of modern blood-spraying special effects.  Super-realistic and super-gritty, down to the last man standing. But the actors are not so much acting as they are offed, and when the guns do the acting the audience is left in the lurch.

Better would be a final reconciliation of the thoughts and attitudes of the characters.  In the context of such complexity, the reconciliation of the mixed mores of the whole lot by death is a cop-out (no pun intended).

A valid supporting performance by Vera Farmiga, the police psychiatrist who assists both undercover agents in through their pre- and post-traumatic syndromes (although her easy lapse into sexual healing with both patients is one the more outstanding mistakes in Monahan’s screenplay). 

Ray Winstone plays second-in-command to Nicholson’s Costello and the two in combination are perfect; nary a slip from either one. 

Rounding out the stellar cast is Howard Shore’s moody, searching soundtrack that leaves the words and pictures to tell most of the story with just the right notes at the right time and ‘Gangs of New York’ Oscar nominee Michael Ballhaus’ dark and steamy cinematography.

Another thoroughly entertaining piece of the work by Martin Scorsese for those who can get past the ultra-realistic violence and who can sufficiently steel themselves for Nicholson’s heart-felt portrayal of an insanely brutal mob boss with nothing left to lose.

Opens wide September 26, 2006. MPAA: Rated R for strong brutal violence, pervasive language, some strong sexual content and drug material