The Departed arrives.

Rating: 9/10 (9 October 2006)

I'm not sure about you, but there is something I find comforting upon hearing the words a Martin Scorsese picture. Like a good home cooked meal, you are in for a treat with all the trimmings. With a Scorsese picture you can bet your 'Color of money' that you will be edutained with his amazing cinema technique, references to classical Hollywood and international filmmakers, and a soundtrack that has you anxiously trying to free up space on your MP3 player.
Not including the bloated but interesting 'Gangs of New York', The Departed sees Mr Scorsese return to the gangster genre since his 1995 masterpiece 'Casino.' More than just a remake of the well received Hong Kong film 'Infernal Affairs' The Departed sees Leonardo Dicaprio as Billy Costigan, a middle class Boston Irish police cadet officer, brought in to become a mole and work undercover in an effort to bring down a local mob and their boss Frank Costello played by the devil incarnate (Jack Nicholson) The engaging plot has a complexity added to it in the form of Colin Sullivan, played by an in form Matt Damon. Looked after as a child by the Costello character and with a life almost the exact flip side to Dicapro's Costigan, Sullivan has also become a cop, only he has been recruited by Nicholson to be his eyes and ears in the department enabling him to see around the longest corners.
A web made from the finest lies, wiretaps, frantic mobile phone whispers, sex, violence and deceit is spun, as both Costigan and Sullivan are caught up in it, trying to snuff one another out. The Departed is filled with wonderful moments that highlight the mastery of director Scorsese.
A scene in which Costigan tails a paranoid Sullivan through a seedy China town is fantastic, cut with switchblade precision from regular collaborator and genius editor Thelma Schoonmaker. Another is a shootout in a standard gangster genre warehouse, Scorsese stages the action with an assured eye and the sound is brilliant as you hear shots and screams echo out like an orchestra of death.
Signature pans, swishes, wipes and zooms are all here, with broody and sombre photography from Michael Ballhaus. Learn to direct watching Scorsese and his amazing crew, even when people are talking the camera moves with purpose and style keeping it interesting and within the needs of the story.
William Monahan must take a lot of credit for this film. His script has taken the structure of the original but flavours it all on his own with quotable for years to come and an underlying pathos and humour amongst the swearing and shouting. The film is so full of menace and testosterone the woman next to me in the cinema sprouted hair on her tongue.
With wonderful support from Alec Baldwin, Mark Wahlberg, Vera Farmiga and Martin Sheen The Departed is the best Hollywood film of the year.
See you at the Oscars.