The Departed

B+

It's hard to put a grade on The Departed that it actually deserves. It's a plot-centred movie, and so alot of the credit goes to the 1999 HongKong movie Infernal Affair, of which Martin Scorcese decided to remake, but keeping most major plot lines intact. That said, The Departed is still a two-hour plus solid entertainment, and so I still recommend it.

There's sort of a war waged in Boston, on one side there's the Boston PD, under the supervision of Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen), and the crimelord Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Each side has successfully infiltrated the other. Frank's protege, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), have risen in ranks to become a state trooper detective; and Queenan sent Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) into Costello's inner circle. And now, the "rats" have to search the identity of the other, and at the same time sending the noots tightening on themselves.

As far as reinterpretations go, there really isn't much evidence that Martin Scorcese's version is a worthy remake. The biggest difference between the Hongkong and the US version is that Costello's part had been beefed up alot at the expense of Queenan's. The latter didn't even actually develop into a character, as far as I could see. Also, Billy Costigan in The Departed had to work to earn Costello's trust, some place which he never really got to; this skew's the balance of power since Sullivan is placed much higher in the chain of command on the other side (in the Hongkong version, both characters were practically their bosses' right-hand men).

Nicholson and DiCaprio get top billing for their turns here. The former, I think, because it's Nicholson; the latter because he's actually an crucial character, the pivot on which the whole movie is angled. Costello is similar to the Daniel Day-Lewis character in Gangs of New York, brutal, flamboyant and strangely enigmatic. Nicholson relished into the part, so much so that at times he seems over-acting. DiCaprio, so good in The Aviator, is stagnating. He doesn't have much presence here like he used to (I still think his best performance was in Marvin's Room); and he's easily eclipsed by Matt Damon, only that his character's more interesting. Supporting roles go to Vera Farmiga as Sullivan's love-interest and Costigan's shrink, Ray Winstone, Mark Wahlberg, and Alec Baldwin in the most useless-but-fun part in the whole movie.

So is The Departed a good movie? Yes, but it's not great. Parts dragged and there were sloppy editings (like scenes where it's obvious that dialogues were cut-short, and a shadow of a person was on screen when the charater was supposed to be alone). I would still expect the person who was responsible for Goodfellas to be able to come up with something better than this. It's a far cry from Scorcese's best.
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