Cops and Criminals, what's the difference?

Rating: 10/10 (18 July 2007)

Taxi Driver was hailed at the movie of the seventies; Raging Bull was the film of the eighties; Good Fellas was the film of the nineties; now in this decade, Martin Scorsese returns to his mafia roots, not in New York or New Jersey, but brings his mafia to Boston where in this update of Infernal Affairs it's mean, violent, frightening with full of surprises, and Jack is Back making The Departed Martin Scorsese's definitive film of this decade.
"When you're faced with a loaded gun...what's the difference?"
In The Departed, Leonardo Dicaprio and Matt Damon play different sides of the law that go in the opposite directions in their careers; Leo is Billy Costigan, a smart recruit who flunked the academy but is hired by Capt. Queenan (Martin Sheen) and the foul-mouth Sgt. Dignam (Mark Whalberg) to go undercover inside mob boss Frank Costello's (Jack Nicholson) team and get any information; Matt is Colin Sullivan who is not only a smart prodigy to Frank, but once he is promoted to the Special Unit Investigations leaded by Capt. Ellerby (Alec Baldwin), it's up to Colin to make sure that he gives Frank the early step.
In a game of cat and mouse, both sides of the law want to find out who the mole is in their operative sources while at the same time both William and Colin are taken in by the father-son figures of their work with Frank thinking of William as a son despite his henchman Mr. French (Ray Winstone) breaking him down. Just like most movies, there is always the love interest. Vera Farmiga who is unknown to a lot of general film freaks like myself plays the police psychiatrist who falls in love with Colin's Suffolk education attitude while she sees Billy as her patient and falls for both characters despite not knowing that both are undercover operatives.
Everyone gives top notch performances, but everybody knows that the one who steals the show is none other than Jack Nicholson's Frank Costello. Nicholson's performance as Costello brings back the devil's grin that made everybody loved villains in the first place; compared to the sadistic Bill the Butcher from Gangs of New York, Jack's performance is one that people will be talking about and reenacting.
On another note about the film, the editing of the film is top notch with Thelma Schoonmaker giving it all she's got bringing energetic life to the movie. The screenplay by William Monahan is excellent after reading the script from purchasing the two disc special edition on February 13, 2007 and this is Martin Scorsese's best film ever.