The Departed (R)

In “The Departed”, Jack Nicholson’s Frank Costello sets the scene early on with this quote: “When I was your age [the Church]would say we can become cops or criminals. Today, what I’m saying to you is this: when you’re facing a loaded gun, what’s the difference?” 

We then learn the set-up of how the film will go. Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is handpicked to go undercover and infiltrate an Irish gang in South Boston led by Costello. Costigan’s largely picked because of his family’s connection to organized crime. Costigan chooses a cop masquerading as a criminal.

On the other side of the coin, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) chooses a mole masquerading as a cop. Sullivan’s groomed from a young age to be a spy for Costello within the police force. He’s Costello’s eyes and ears – and happens to be on the squad that is trying to take Costello down.

It sets in motion an entertaining and immaculately written (by William Monahan) story of trying to find the rat and navigating an intense cat-and-mouse game. It’s directed by Martin Scorsese and became the first American remake of a foreign film (the Hong Kong picture “Infernal Affairs” written by Alan Mak and Felix Chong) to win ‘Best Picture’ at the Academy Awards.

Even when characters are just talking, everything is intense because the stakes are so high. They’re quite literally life or death – especially for Billy. The scenes of drama between Billy and Frank are also well-handled because of what Nicholson brings to the villain. He makes him unpredictable in a lot of scenes, which makes him that much more terrifying.

I felt like the story itself is unpredictable in a lot of ways – but you feel like it’s not going to end well either way. The scenes of thrills and shootouts are also directed masterfully by Scorsese. With him, there’s never a dull moment in the film. There are many bizarre moments, mostly brought by Nicholson’s character. It’s also really fascinating watching Costello lose his wits a bit as the stakes get higher for his gang.

DiCaprio is also great in these scenes and great overall. As the undercover agent, you can really feel the anxiety he feels throughout – and he makes it look like the hardest job in the world, which it really seems to be. He’s surrounded by terrifying criminals and he can’t exactly run away – he has to immerse himself in it – and he also appears scared of losing his identity.

Matt Damon is really good as Colin and brings a confidence about his character even though he, too, is navigating a thin line. The two actors (Damon, DiCaprio) navigating this intense game and the stakes and the film’s many layers fascinated me and drew me into the story. It’s especially effective since the writing doesn’t have the two interact for much of the film.

Damon also has great chemistry with a police psychologist Madolyn (Vera Farmiga). Farmiga is great at acting, but her Boston accent is very inconsistent. It seems thickest around Colin, but it seems like she forgets to do it in other scenes.

The music and score is great, too, and they use “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” by Dropkick Murphys awesomely.

The dialogue itself is great throughout. Staff Sergeant Dignam (played by Mark Wahlberg in his first Oscar-nominated role) gets a lot of the funny lines, especially when he banters with Alec Baldwin’s Ellerby. A lot of lines from everyone are very funny.

One of Dignam’s great lines in general is “Feds are like mushrooms, feed ‘em shit but keep ‘em in the dark.” This turns out to be important because in this world, you never know who you can trust.

– by Daniel Prinn