One of the year's best films, and Scorsese's best work in over a decade.

Rating: 9/10 (1 December 2006)

Not just one of the year's best films, but also Martin Scorsese's best work in over a decade, The Departed is a vintage slice of the director's style infused with a modern edge.
A loose remake of the Hong Kong three-part thriller Internal Affairs, The Departed is hardly an inferior Hollywood copy; Scorsese takes the material and makes it entirely his own. Opening with a classy flashback and then leaping forward with a ferocious act of violence on-screen, this is as well paced and energetic as anything Scorsese has done in well over a decade; not since Casino has he made something so fresh and riveting.
The movie, which takes place in Boston, features an interweaving story headlined by a stellar cast. Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a troubled cop who goes deep undercover to bring down notorious mobster Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson), who has control of the police force through several moles; one of whom (played by Matt Damon) begins to suspect someone in Frank's operation is a rat. As he races to expose Billy, he loses the affection of his girlfriend, who begins to  oddly enough  embark on an affair with Billy (she's a police psychiatrist). Supporting castmembers include Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg in his best performance since Boogie Nights.
The plot twists and turns so many times yet never becomes pretentious or overly deliberate; it all seems to connect very naturally, and perhaps the only portion of the film that I didn't quite buy was the romantic subplot, which would have worked if it had focused solely on Damon's tensions with his girlfriend, but became fairly unbelievable once she begins cheating on him with DiCaprio's character.
The performances are extraordinary  Jack Nicholson has a lot of fun with his role and comes across as a psychopathic comedian trapped in a mob boss' body. DiCaprio is riveting and delivers the most convincing performance of them all  evoking a young De Niro towards the end of the picture in both mannerisms and physicality.
Directorially this is Scorsese's strongest effort in years, and it shows in every frame of the picture. It may not be groundbreaking and it may not be as socially relevant as some of the director's best works, but as pure entertainment this ranks as some of his finest to date.