Best movie of the year

Rating: 9/10 (5 December 2006)

The very beginning of The Departed struck me as very similar to GoodFellas. It begins with a boy telling of his first experiences with the mob. The locale even seemed the same. There are other instances in the movie where Scorsese seems to allude back to GoodFellas, a movie many consider to be one of his masterpieces, but in my opinion I think The Departed is all its own and even exceeds GoodFellas in quality and profundity. And besides that, it's also incredibly entertaining.
The movie has been advertised as a thriller, and it succeeds at that very well. Leonardo Dicaprio plays Billy Costigan, a cop assigned to not be a cop ever again; instead, he will be a plant in Frank Costello's (Jack Nicholson) outfit. Matt Damon is Colin Sullivan, a cop who works on the side for Costello who entrusts him with the job of finding the mole in his gang. Scorsese weaves an intricate tapestry of deceit and mistrust with bloody and jarring violence mixed with intense scenes where the various disguises are on the verge of being uncovered. It's a very entertaining tapestry; nothing is for sure, and while that could have been frustrating, Scorsese involves you so much in the characters that you understand that when you're wondering if Billy or Colin is lying, they're wondering the same thing.
Exploring themes like family and identity and loyalty is not new hat for Scorsese. He contemplated the same ideas in GoodFellas with his depiction of the life of a mafia man. But in The Departed he takes it a step farther and asks the question of what happens when you lose that identity and pretend to be someone you're not. This opens up opportunities to discover what happens to the characters' relationships in these circumstances. Scorsese was blessed with an amazing cast to help him in this task. Leonardo Dicaprio gave an amazing performance two years ago in The Aviator, and while I think that may be his better performance, there's no denying the power and truth in his desperately soul-searching undercover cop. He deserves another Oscar nomination for this, but he probably won't get it because Jack Nicholson is getting most of the notice (not all of it good) for his performance. Some critics are complaining that Nicholson went over the top; I don't think so at all. Everything he did was appropriate as the ultimate kingpin of the Boston mob because his character can get away with anything and knows it. Matt Damon has the least to do of the three of them, but Damon is a good actor and is no less than that here. Vera Farmiga has a good stint as Damon's love interest and Dicaprio's shrink; the lack of identity for both Damon's and Dicaprio's characters has a tasking effect on her and she holds her own against the two men.
There's no doubt in my mind that this is the best movie of the year. It has by far the best ending to a Scorsese movie out of the three I've seen. The profundity and inevitability of the last few scenes is perfect. If only the Academy would agree. The only true contenders against it so far for the Oscar are Babel (not as complete as this one) and The Queen (which isn't as big or brawny as The Departed). Besides, Scorsese has been ignored for far too long. This would be a very appropriate time for him to win, and with this movie he would deserve it.
But Oscars aside, I would recommend this movie to anyone who appreciates thrilling stories with meaning behind them. Those kinds of movies are few and far between, so grab onto this one and keep hold of it while it lasts.