The Departed Reviewed

There's a new addition to my top five of the year, and it should surprise no one that the credit is due to one Mr. Martin Scorcese.

Based on Wai Keung Lau's Internal Affairs, The Departed tells the story of two state cops in Boston, one working undercover in a gang, the other working as a mole for the gang. Beyond that? I won't say much more. If you haven't seen the original (which I had not), the suspense is tremendous, and the movie is filled with subtle twists and turns that keep you guessing without the jarring, cheated feel of "OMG, SURPRISE!" that some films resort to.

What I can tell you is that Scorcese's direction is top notch. He adopts Boston as his own, drawing you into its streets, from Beacon Hill to Southie, with a gritty, blue aesthetic. The sense of place is organic and real, just like in so many of his New York films. It is a rather long film, but it doesn't feel like it for even a second. The pacing is relentless, wasting not one of it's 152 minutes.

William Monahan's script is tremendous. Brutal and unforgiving when it has to be, but with enough moments of levity to not crush you with the oh-so-serious of it all. It strikes a perfect balance, and sets the groundwork for some amazing performances.

The actors take full advantage of this. Scorcese is a real actor's director, and it shows in the performances he evokes from his stars. Leonardo DiCaprio leads the film with his role as the undercover cop, and if he doesn't get an Oscar nod out of the deal, then the Academy has its collective head farther up its butt than I ever imagined possible. Now, I make no excuses for the fact that I've been a DiCaprio fan for a long time. Somehow, Titanic's success made a lot of people dismiss him as a teeny-bopper flash in the pan. But look at his body of work. Look at his film choices, and who he's worked with. Steven Spielberg. Danny Boyle. Woody Allen. Baz Luhrmann. Lasse Hallström. Sam Raimi (which, okay, The Quick and the Dead kind of sucked, but DiCaprio's performance was strong!). He's been smarter about his roles than just about any actor his age. And these last three films with Scorcese? Forget about it. He's one of the finest actors of his generation, and he keeps getting better. He's genius in this role, managing to outshine even Jack Nicholson, which is a next to impossible feat, especially in Nicholson's role here, which is see-saws between bone-chilling villainy and hilarity (which somehow makes the bone-chilling even chillier). This is another performance that we should see getting a glimpse of the gold in March. The pair are backed with stellar supporting performances from Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Alec Baldwin, and Vera Farmiga.

The Departed exemplifies moviemaking at its finest, and should not be missed.