A big, bad, brilliant Scorsese thriller that even gets Boston right.

Rating: 9/10 (9 October 2006)

Martin Scorsese turns Boston into a bristling stage for a vicious adaptation of 2002's "Infernal Affairs". It seems an unlikely transition to make: Hong Kong to Boston. Going from a huge Asian industrial metropolis to a small burg that still looks as though half of it was ripped right out of England would contradict the very basis of the plot. Even the trailer fails to give the feeling that the setting is anything more than Pick-Your-City, USA. It just doesn't seem possible, but Scorsese with writer William Monahan bring their whole adaptation of "Infernal Affairs" to life and succeed in making it actually be about Boston. The powerhouse cast (with two hometown consultants built in) doesn't hurt one bit either. This review is certainly not alone in declaring that Mr. Scorsese has just turned in one of the best films of his portfolio and possibly the best film ever set in Boston.
Frank Costello is a deeply entrenched criminal resident who has won the early loyalties of Collin Sullivan (Matt Damon) before Sullivan rises into the upper echelons of the Massachusetts State Police. Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) comes from a family of screw-up criminals, but he makes it through the police academy before his relations get him noticed. Those experiences and connections get him set up to be the police mole into Costello's crew. Sullivan's and Costigan's very separate paths bring them both ironically closer to one state psychologist, Madolyn (Vera Farminga, a sharp and talented newcomer). Both cops and criminals make small victories until the need to eradicate the other's mole comes boiling over. The hunt is then on, and no audience sensibility is spared as the reaping begins.
The cast disappears into the story. Matt Damon is a duplicitous bulldog who slides scams by in a hair's breadth. DiCaprio uses an extensive palate of subtle expressions to make Costigan's own double-dealing troubles tangible. Vera Farminga crams more strength into her light frame than many A-list divas. Nobody, including the unpredictable and frightening Nicholson, is winking at the audience. That is not to say that there are no laughs to be had. Every time Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) ends up on screen he steals the scene by pouring a river of endless epitephs, slang and slander on whomever his target happens to be. He and Alec Baldwin's dedicated Ellerby are both priceless verbal whirlwinds.
Scorsese is, of course, a master of his craft. The camera work is never more than it needs to be and he does jarring edits with sound to create a rough feel. Although this is Oscar-level work, there is never a moment that says this is what is on the great director's mind. "The Aviator" comes off as a BBC production of a Jane Austen novel by comparison. He wants the story to blow the audience out of their seats and does everything to facilitate that. This is not a moralizing tale, and the blood flows freely. Scorsese places events in front of you and lets them unfold across the screen. Location, production design and story all melt together.
Boston is a difficult city to get down on film. History and politics permeate its often-twisted one-way streets. You can walk from Paul Revere's house past sites of the bussing protests and cross the river to the corporate headquarters of companies that are forging the future of medicine. Ask for directions, and they'll be given with geographic references that consist of Catholic parishes, bars and Dunkin Donuts shops. It's not the sprawling smörgåsbord of interchangeable scenery that LA provides. Although three-quarters of the production was in New York to take advantage of the more economical tax breaks in the Empire State, each location feels distinctly Bostonian. They even get the State Police office building right - and that is one of the most uniquely ugly buildings ever constructed. Places are specific and so are the people. There's no element of camp like Lloyd Bridges's big shamrock hot tub in "Blown Away", and nobody in the film is named Murph. Southie and the North End are dead on and actually were among the favorite roosting places for the infamous James "Whitey" Bulger, upon whom Jack Nicholson's linchpin character of Frank Costello was based.
(If you're curious about how such a man could exist in this small city, pick up the book "Black Mass" by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill. Stories about the real Whitey are even more terrifying than Nicholson makes Costello.)
Wai Keung Lau, Siu Fung Mak and Felix Chong brought that rare new kind of plot thriller to the world with "Infernal Affairs". See the original because it is a sharp modern classic. See this film because it is perfectly breathless in its pace, and it never lets you go.
9 out of 10