The Consequences of Misplaced Loyalty & Trust

Rating: 10/10 (6 October 2006)

Film god, Martin Scorsese has directed his "hardest" film to date... And that is saying a lot! My own knuckles hurt after watching this film, packed to the rafters with pistol-whippings, face-crunching fists and round-house kicks to the teeth. "The Departed" is an emotionally paralyzing face-off between the State Police, the mob, and their respective informants / rats, on the cold-hearted back alleys of Boston, Mass.
What makes this film so superbly successful is the way Martin Scorsese marshals this complex story into a brisk moving, completely understandable, entirely real piece of cinema that strikes a chord deep inside the viewer. When the final credits start to roll, you will let out a deep breath of relief... One that will feel like it has been held since the first frame of the film.
After an initial introduction to the life and crimes Frank Costello (Nicholson), the legendary Boston mob boss, we join the proceedings as William Costigan (DiCaprio) and Colin Sullivan (Damon) are graduating from the State Police Academy. Each near top of their class, they are forced in very different directions when they reach the detective unit.
Sullivan is assigned a lofty rank as the star rookie on the force. However, his loyalties do not lay with the boys in blue. He has been quietly raised since his early teens by none other than Frank Costello.
Costigan is offered a vastly different assignment. His records erased, his graduation deleted... He is required to go undercover, a plant directly into the heart of the mob itself. After a cosmetic 4-month stint in jail, he is released with a bad reputation and worms his way toward Costello's clan.
The film shifts gears and stories faster than you can blink, allowing us to spy on this cat and mouse thriller. The camera acts as our informant. And let me tell you something... Every piece of information this films leaks is fascinating.
There are tales of female infidelity, police futility, mob brutality, penile immobility, cell-phone connectivity. OK, I stretched for that one. The story leads to its logical and somewhat inevitable conclusion, taking no prisoners along the way. Every character plays an important part at some point... And not every character is what they first seem to be.
Marty Scorsese is masterful here. He may just have earned himself another Oscar nod. He is going to get one someday... It probably should be for this film. His camera flows like no other director's ever has. It is kinetic and forceful, a perfect match for the characters and the story.
The cast is just about as good as it gets. If you were still on the hedge about Leo -- Forget about it. This is a master craftsman at work. His intensity and power is every bit a match for Jack Nicholson's efforts. In fact, there are scenes where Jack disappears behind Leo's force.
Matt Damon is fast becoming a great actor. This is his most complex role to date. He imbues Colin Sullivan with a conniving intelligence that has the police looking in all the wrong places.
Alec Baldwin has long deserved Oscar recognition. He should get a Best Supporting actor nod here as the Police Captain. He has one tremendous moment where he raves about the Patriot Act... It is a superbly satirical jab that I presume may have been his own ad-lib.
Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg, Vera Farmiga & Ray Winstone round out the first-team cast with the utmost class. I am sure this film will be considered by the Screen Actor's Guild for Best Ensemble.
I cannot imagine any sane human being watching this film and not placing it in their year-end Top 10 List. "The Departed" is so raw and so heavy-hitting that it doesn't stop at your eyeballs, it rips right to the core of you. It is the most involving film of 2006, so far. It is the most supremely crafted film of 2006, so far. It is the best film of 2006, so far. And I doubt whether I will see a handful of films the rest of the way that will challenge it for the top spot.
Â© Written by TC Candler IndependentCritics.com