THE DEPARTED

Martin Scorsese, arguably the greatest living American film director, returns to the crime drama genre with The Departed, a compelling, funny, and suspenseful thriller that is easily one of the best films of 2006.

Adapted from the Hong Kong crime thriller Infernal Affairs, the film explores fractured psyches and divided loyalties through two protagonists: Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio), a cop deep undercover in the crew of sadistic crime lord Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson), and Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), Costello’s protégé and his mole in the Boston PD. Both gradually become aware of each other’s presence, and the film kicks into high tension-winding mode as they both try to track down and expose the other, leading to an ending of Shakespearean proportions.

A superb cast delivers several career-high performances. DiCaprio gives his best performance since The Basketball Diaries, projecting the desperation and existential loneliness of someone left without an identity. Damon manages to make his character sympathetic, no mean feat given that he’s aiding and abetting a psychopath. Jack Nicholson, said psychopath, pulls off a gestaltic piece of acting, building a smart, capricious, dexterous, and downright dangerous character out of many small moments that in other hands would shape a cliché. However, it is an almost iconic performance, and should net Nicholson another Oscar.

Scorsese has lost none of his ability as a filmmaker, brilliantly placing and moving the camera to capture and reflect interior and exterior action. There are no overly bombastic camera tricks here, though. In fact, one of the most effective scenes involves complete silence and two characters listening to each other on a cell phone connection. This moment is instructive of the power of great cinema – no digital effects, no fast and fancy editing, just a camera perfectly placed to capture two actors in a simple but intense moment that the writing has earned through smart, deliberate build-up. Another, briefer, moment that stayed with me was a shot of DiCaprio's face reflected in an ornament constructed of several hanging mirror shards, in a pellucid visual representation of a splintered psyche.

As with all of Scorsese’s films in this genre, there are several moments of explicit violence that are not discretely hidden off-screen. The Departed shows the dank, cagey backstreets of Boston in all their sick, jagged fury. Always a master of music choice, Scorsese chooses several classic songs and an effective score by Howard Shore to complement the cinematic action. One key song, the Stones’ Gimme Shelter, is repeated during the film, and is a cue that The Departed may at its heart be about fragmented individuals without a home in their inside and outside worlds.

William Monahan’s screenplay twists and turns, racking up the tension, and pausing here and there to spout some dialogue both quote-worthy (“I don't wanna be a product of my environment, I want my environment to be a product of me.”) and laugh-out-loud (politeness dictates that I don’t quote the funny but very profane moments).

The writing and direction build up the film to an almost operatic, epic drama. The Departed is sheer bloody poetry.

---
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Written by William Monahan, based on the screenplay Infernal Affairs by Siu Fai Mak and Felix Chong

Original Music by Howard Shore
Cinematography by Michael Ballhaus
Film Editing by Thelma Schoonmaker

Starring
Leonardo DiCaprio....Billy Costigan
Matt Damon....Colin Sullivan
Jack Nicholson....Frank Costello
Mark Wahlberg....Dignam
Martin Sheen....Oliver Queenan
Ray Winstone....Mr. French
Vera Farmiga....Madolyn
Anthony Anderson....Brown
Alec Baldwin....Ellerby