Scorsese in familiar territory: guerrilla warfare in the urban jungle. Terrific acting except for Nicholson's lazy turn

Rating: 9/10 (4 November 2006)

Martin Scorsese returns to the milieu he knows best: guerrilla warfare in the urban jungle, only this time the setting is south Boston ("Southy"), not New York City, and it's Irish ghetto dwellers, not Italians, that claim his attention. All of which is vaguely amusing in light of the fact that Departed is a remake of a 2002 Hong Kong crime flick, "Infernal Affairs," adapted from the original script by William Monahan, a Boston Irishman himself.
The plot line is as reminiscent of John LeCarre as of Mario Puzo. It's all about spying. The Boston city police suspect that Southy gang lord Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) has planted a mole inside their criminal division. At the same time, Costello's people have been tipped that the police covert crime unit might be running a spy, an undercover agent who has infiltrated their gang. In fact, both rumors are true, as we learn early on. But wait a minute. Things aren't THAT simple: there seems to be a spy behind every other lamppost in this shoot 'em up thriller. And Scorsese pays all due respect to the Hong Kong provenance of this story by liberally splashing blood and knuckle sandwiches around like holy water.
Scorsese has also gathered a fabulous cast, and for the most part he orchestrates their turns to great effect. Matt Damon (playing Colin Sullivan) and Leo DiCaprio (as Billy Costigan) are the principal spies, and both sizzle: they're tough as shoe leather, quick as tigers. This is the best work I've seen from DiCaprio in ages: he's maturing, he's bulked up, he's convincingly tough yet just vulnerable enough to be intriguing, as well. Scorsese makes more than sufficient amends here for miscasting him as Howard Hughes in "The Aviator."
Another wonderful surprise is Mark Wahlberg's strong work as the garbage mouth, in-your-face Sergeant Dignam, aide de camp to the chief of the undercover unit and Costigan's leader, Oliver Queenan, who is more than ably played by Martin Sheen. And that's not all. Alec Baldwin also shines as Ellerby, chief of the crime unit, Damon's boss. Then there is Brit bad guy extraordinaire, Ray Winstone, never more menacing than he is here as "Mr. French," Costello's right hand man.
That leaves us with only a couple of less admirable turns to confront, one of which, I regret to report, is presented by Jack Nicholson, who sleepwalks through this film playing the role of, yes, himself, Jack Nicholson. We get the shambling gait that has attended his increasing corpulence in recent years. The rolling up of the eyes, the arching of the brows, the acid toss off comments, the devilish, naughty little smirks that can explode into either a violent attack or a hearty guffaw.
But it's all old hat: Prêt-à-Porter, off-the-shelf, stock Nicholson. And for that reason I find his turn here distracting, like, how did this aging, frumpy, lovable Hollywood actor become enmeshed in a taut crime storyhe better watch out, he could get hurt. He doesn't need a hip fracture at his age. I defended Nicholson in "About Schmidt," when a number of critics said he was too big a star to play such a character role, i.e., too much Jack, not enough Schmidt. But I can't defend him here. Come on, Jack! You can do better. Start surprising us, for Heaven's sakes. Earn your money. Be a dog that is willing to learn new tricks.
However canned his performance is, you can never accuse Nicholson of offering a weak turn, but you can sure indict Vera Farmiga on this charge. Her Madolyn is a psychiatrist who ends up having professional and unprofessional contacts with both young spies, Sullivan and Costigan. The screenplay demands that she face a hopeless fate: as a lover, she is ambiguous and lacks passion; and as a shrink, her sense of boundary issues approaches that of an amoeba. As the lone woman among this pack of seriously felonious cops and crooks, she all but disappears. If I were Ms. Farmiga, I would replace my current agent within the next 30 minutes, before he steers me into another suicidal casting blunder.
This rough and tumble gangster stuff is done in the stylish, grand Scorsese manner; he's at his best directing entertainments like this one (think of "Mean Streets" and "Goodfellas"). And if the moral point seems to be that there isn't much difference between cops and criminals, why that's hardly news. For years psychological researchers have demonstrated such an affinity in the personality makeup of these two groups of adversaries. Like any good Hong Kong crime movie, this one may not teach us anything we don't know already, or transport us to any new destination, but it's sure a thrilling ride. My grades: 8.5/10 (A-) (Seen on 11/02/06)