The Departed

Rating: 10/10 (14 October 2006)

The Departed is an Americanized version of the Internal Affairs trilogy from Hong Kong. The film is about a young man named Billy Costigan who is assigned by the police to go undercover and be a part of the Irish mafia and do whatever their leader Frank Costello tells him to do. The police are trying to crack down on Frank and they figure if Billy gets enough information on him that he can lead them to him and they can make an arrest. Meanwhile another cop named Colin Sullivan is trying to help the police crack down on Frank as well, but little do they know that he has been a long time friend of Frank and whenever they come close to catching him Colin always tips him off, so he doesn't get caught. Frank soon starts to realize that he has a traitor among his men and tries to find out who that is and the police know that one of their men is tipping off Frank and they try and find out who that is. The rest of the film is a cat and mouse game of who ends out and top and who gets caught or not. The Departed has good direction, a good adapted screenplay, good performances by the entire cast, good original music, good cinematography and good film editing. The Departed is a smart film that has a good story and lots of neat twists and turns and you never know how the film is going to end. I thought everyone behind the camera and on screen did a great job and the story kept my interest and entertained me and kept me in suspense wondering what would happen to these characters. The conversations between these characters are very well written and the dialogue between them is very good as well. The film has a nice stylish look and at times also looks gritty which helps give the film the needed edge and feel that it needs. There are a lot of interesting things in this story and while the movie does involve several characters it never complicates the story by throwing in unnecessary side plots or other things involving the characters and when it does it all works well. This film is pulled off very nicely by it's cast and great director Martin Scorsese. For being an unpredictable, compelling and well made film that packs a powerful punch especially in it's last half I would say that The Departed is one of the best films of the year and another great film for Martin Scorsese's film résumé.