Posted: 10/07/2006

The Departed

(2006)

by Karen Petruska

Other than Marty’s nutty final image, this film is more like the old Scorcese we all know and love.

Near the climax of Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Billy Costigan answers a cell phone. Costigan, a cop working undercover with the mob in Boston, suspects that the person on the other end of the line is rat police officer who has been feeding Jack Nicholson’s Irish mob boss police information. This dirty cop, played by Matt Damon, hears DiCaprio answer the call, but for a full minute, neither character speaks a word. This is their first interaction in the film, and the moment is edge-of-your seat suspenseful.

The rest of the film is equally thrilling. With his latest movie, Scorsese returns to his roots in crime drama and cinema returns to its roots in old-fashioned storytelling. Scorsese’s last two films, Gangs of New York and The Aviator, were both Oscar contenders, but they were weighed down by their length and scope. The Departed clocks in at two hours and thirty minutes, but its tight plotting and energetic pace holds the audience in rapt attention.

Adapted from Hong Kong’s Infernal Affairs, William Monahan screenplay relishes the complexity of the plot, featuring two moles trying to find the identity of the other before being exposed. Yet somehow, Scorsese and Monahan move the audience through the layers of the story with finesse, humor, and no small degree of audacity. Jokes are subtle and often perverse, as when Nicholson’s mob boss taunts two corrupt priests. Smartly written, the dialogue sets the film’s tone of efficiency and intelligence. Scorsese keeps the film moving, but he allows his actors the time they need to connect with each other. Considering the caliber of actors in this film, this is a very lucky thing for audiences.

Leonardo DiCaprio returns for his third collaboration with Scorsese, and DiCaprio evidences a tremendous maturity and nuance in his portrayal of tortured cop/mob spy Costigan. He is a man with a fractured identity, yearning to prove himself. In order to do so, however, Costigan is forced to return to the underworld from which his parents fought for him to escape. His foil in the police force is dirty cop Colin Sullivan, played by Matt Damon with all the charm he can muster. Damon’s coolness lies in direct opposition to DiCaprio’s frenetic energy. They make ideal counterparts.

Jack Nicholson is mob boss Frank Costello, mentor to Damon’s rotten cop. Nicholson is a man completely at ease in his role, and he attacks the part, and the other characters, with ferocity. Equally good in a less showy role is Martin Sheen, DiCaprio’s primary connection to the police force. Throw in Mark Wahlberg in a role that asks him to operate at the peak of fury (and doesn’t depend upon exploiting Wahlberg’s six-pack abs), and you have a crackerjack cast for a crackerjack film.

In the end, though, this is DiCaprio’s movie, and as critical consensus has decreed, former it-boy Leo is now Mr. DiCaprio. He perfectly captures the anger, fear, and vulnerability of his character. That latter trait comes to his aid in the seduction of psychiatrist Madolyn (Vera Farmiga). Though she lives with Sullivan, unbeknownst to Costigan, Madolyn finds herself inexplicably attracted to Costigan. In their first scene together, he calls her number early on. Their verbal exchange is elliptical as Costigan tries to assert a self he no longer recognizes. Madolyn cannot take her eyes off him. The audience is equally unable to turn away from DiCaprio’s highly-charged and exposed portrayal.

The Departed is not for everyone. The movie is incredibly bloody, but not in a gross horror film way. Rather, every character in the film puts his or her life on the line, and quite often, they lose the gamble. The humor in the film in part derives from the obscenity of the violence, with the film climaxing in a symphony of brutal murders. Scorsese isn’t trying to be deep, and his film won’t change your life. But it may make you believe in Hollywood again.

Karen Petruska is a film critic living in Chicago.

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