Marty's back, in fine form.

Rating: 10/10 (9 November 2006)

After several years of toiling away in good (but not great) historical dramas and biopics, it's fantastic to see Scorcese return to his roots with this gritty, tough, tense gangster flick.
And it's almost as if he never left. "The Departed" is a textbook example of how to craft a practically flawless thriller - these guys set the scene early on, and keep ratcheting the tension tighter and tighter, all the way till the end.
Scorcese is at the top of his game - his sure-footed direction of his actors and beautifully operatic staging work wonders within the cops-and-mobsters world of the Boston underground.
Marty's got good source material here as well. Monahan's script is easily a front-runner for the Oscars this year. His characters are complicated, conflicted, and utterly fascinating. "The Departed" has more twists than a Russian contortionist, and Monahan will keep you guessing, right up until the final minutes of the film.
The cast is nothing short of brilliant as well - leads DiCaprio and Damon hit career-high notes in varied but intense performances, and the supporting cast of Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin, and Martin Sheen all take to their characters with relish. And that's saying nothing of the sheer joy that the audience gets watching Jack Nicholson really, really let himself go. Which is saying something.
Fast-paced, bloody, tough and demanding, "The Departed" will grab you by the throat and keep squeezing until the credits.