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In the South Boston underworld, no-one inspires more fear or respect than Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Costello is the ruthless kingpin of the city’s most feared criminal gang – a gang that the Massachusetts State Police are determined to smash. When young Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) joins the Department, Chief Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Detective Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) immediately pick him as the man for the job. With his family’s criminal connections – the very connections he had been trying to escape – Costigan has all the credibility he needs to infiltrate the gang. What neither Queenan nor his colleague at special investigations, Captain Ellerby (Alec Baldwin), realise is that Costello is playing the same game. The rising star of their Department - Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) – is really Costello’s mole, and they have unwittingly set Billy Costigan on a collision course with him.
Review:
It’s been a tough decade for Martin Scorsese fans. Sure, he’s been denied the Oscar twice for a pair of unmistakably brilliant films, but that’s not really the issue. For all his virtuosity, Scorsese hasn’t made an unashamedly entertaining film since Goodfellas or possibly Casino. All that has changed with The Departed, a film as enjoyable as it is masterful.
Not that sprawling epics like Gangs of New York and The Aviator aren’t enthralling enough in their own way, it’s just that they require a certain effort, even a dedication, to tackle. There’s no such hesitation with The Departed. Over two hours long and yet it flies by – never once stopping for a breath. This is the kind of film people will want to watch over and over again, to memorise the quotes and revel in the many unforgettable scenes.
And yet, for all its popcorn-movie appeal, The Departed is also a work of technical and creative genius. Teaming up with many of the same Oscar winning crew as he used on Gangs and The Aviator, Scorsese has crafted a film as beautiful to look at as it is thrilling to watch. And while elements like cinematography, editing and production design are all flawless, all of them remain invisible unless you’re specifically looking for them. This is old school filmmaking at its best – it won’t let anything get in the way of the story.
Compared to the scope and complexity of his last few films, The Departed has an extremely simple story. Adapted from a Hong Kong thriller called Infernal Affairs (Wu Jian Dao), there’s nothing revolutionary about this tale of loyalty and betrayal. Like many Hong Kong films, it appeals unselfconsciously to the mythic and the archetypal. It deals in a currency of honour and fate, without resorting to the campy irony that Hollywood feels compelled to heap on such old-fashioned values. And yet, in Scorsese’s hands, it becomes something much more – a framework in which to explore a trio of fascinating character studies.
Scorsese has a well-deserved reputation for getting the best out of his casts, and his two young leads are ample evidence of this. DiCaprio has never been better. He brings the same intensity to this role as his Oscar nominated turn in The Aviator, but with a subtlety and control that eclipses anything he has done previously. His scenes with Jack Nicholson are particularly challenging and, since he never skips a beat, particularly rewarding.
As for Damon, an actor that many critics long ago dismissed as a one trick pony, his performance is close to flawless. For a man so used to being cast as the charming hero, he plays the weasel with uncommon fluidity. Granted he can’t manage the same emotional resonance as DiCaprio, but he makes up for it with oily self-assurance and pinpoint timing.
But, despite how impressive the youngsters are, it’s Jack Nicholson who steals the show. Just when it looked like he had resigned himself to playing harmless old farts for the rest of his career, along comes a part like Frank Costello and reminds us of just how dangerous and seductive Nicholson can be. At times hilarious, at times unhinged, Nicholson seems to swagger through this movie without a care in the world but, watched closely, he is like a man coming up for air.
With all this star studded posturing going on it’s easy to forget how strong the rest of the supporting cast are. Few directors can attract the likes of Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, and Alec Baldwin to such small roles, and even fewer can coax these kinds of memorable performances out of a handful of lines. There’s literally not one weak performance in the film which, given that the cast runs into the dozens, is pretty extraordinary.
Brilliant or not, The Departed isn’t for everyone. This is violent, foul-mouthed stuff with almost no morally redeeming features. There’s an underlying nihilism to the film – a kind of self-containing, self-consuming fatalism that defies our hunger for meaning. The movie exists only to perpetuate its own ends – it has no universal significance.
And, in the end, so what? The Departed may not change the world, but it will certainly entertain it. After toiling over two self-conscious historical epics, Scorsese just wants to have some fun, and we are lucky enough to be invited along for the ride.
- Alistair Fairweather
