The Departed

The Departed is an almost perfect crime thriller from legendary director Martin Scorsese. The main story involves a new police recruit named Bill Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) who goes undercover in a gang run by the infamous crime boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) just as Costello plants his longtime surrogate son Collin Sullivan (Matt Damon) undercover as a police officer. The two men work back and forth against one another with limited knowledge about each other’s identity. By the middle of the movie, they end up in an all out race to unmask the other before their undercover standing gets compromised. The film creates an exciting world of complete deception where everyone’s loyalties are unsure and no one is safe from anyone.

Unfortunately, the movie is marred by its own tendency for excess. Rather then savoring its brilliant moments, it tends to overstretch the material and ends up working against itself. During its climax, the film manages to create a sense of pure dramatic agony as gunshot wounds occur to the most unfortunate recipients. Instead of letting these painful and shocking deaths stand as distinctly tragic outcomes, the film piles on so many gunshots to the head that the entire scene becomes one big meaningless splatterfest. Had the movie demonstrated a bit more restraint here and elsewhere when potency takes a backseat to bloodlust and exhilaration, it would have been a much better film.

As it stands, this is still one of the most entertaining thrillers of the year. Underthinking certainly helps to reduce the amount of hole poking done to its tangled web of characters, but there’s enough genuine dramatic story to make these characters worth caring for or worth loathing depending on whom you’re speaking about. Most importantly, the film has a fresh sense of vicious wit. In addition to being a visceral tragedy, this is also a very funny depiction of rough men in ruthless situations that has no shame in getting laughs from violent assaults and other dark incidents when it pleases.

Combine this mix of thrills and laughs with Scorsese’s visual flare and outstanding performances by the entire cast and you have a slightly overdone but entirely enjoyable film.

Grade: A-