The ExceptionalFellas: finally the Scorcese/DiCaprio partnership lives up to all expectations

Rating: Null/10 (10 November 2006)

When the fellowship between Scorcese and DiCaprio seemed to be on way to confirm it as a shot on water, here they come up with The Departed. Gone are the unsuccessful historical themes of Gangs of New York and The Aviator, in which the director seemed so comfortable as a crasher in a party, and comes back the universe of organized crime, that he dominates perfectly; vanishes the catalysts leads, and brings up the original and more balanced division of forces between the characters; above all, there isn't here that desperate need for approval - of the Academy, his pairs, of the industry and the public - that were present in his two previous projects with his favourite actor. Scorcese is back to his comfort zone. Which, in his case, means the return to the extreme emotions and the cinema of high combustion of Goodfellas and Casino, that until this new enterprise were considered the last big moments of his curriculum.
Adapted such and which of Infernal Affairs, a Hong Kong crime movie, The Departed treats on the opposing trajectories, but symmetrical, of Billy Costigan (DiCaprio) and Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon). Both have family connections with the Boston Irish mafia, and both distinguish themselves as cadets in the police academy. Colin, however, is there by orders of Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson), the godfather of the local banditry, with the purpose of making a career in the law and therefore facilitate the business of his organization. Billy, whose father apparently was the only honest man in the family, is recruited for the inverse task: commit a crime, get kicked out of the police force and forge his passage to the other side of the balcony, captivating next to Costello. For his protection, only two of his superiors, interpreted by Martin Sheen and Mark Wahlberg, know his true identity. And, the more the two plans, Billy's and Colin's, uncurl themselves, the clearer it gets to both organizations (the criminal and the police) that they have a rat in the house - and the more it intensifies the hunt for them.
As an example of another icon of the new yorker cinema, Woody Allen, which in Match Point gained new breath when transposing his habitual themes to London, Scorcese appears rejuvenated in this change to Boston. In contrary to Allen, however, that went to film in England because it was there that the money for it came from, the unexpected decision of Scorcese served to at least one good practical reason. A plot such as of The Departed would stumble on innumerable logical obstacles if taken place into the rigid hierarchy of the Italian families of the New York mafia. Now the style more, let's say, personalized - and, therefore, highly inflammable - of the irishans of Boston fits perfectly to this story of two voluble agents, that act based on improvisation and in the shortest elapsed time of action and reaction, with no information to map beforehand a path to walk on. Billy and Collin are thus, more then anything, actors, and their different dramatic styles - calculated and good-tempered in the case of Collin, that is climbing up in meteoric speed in politics, defensive and reactive in the case of Billy, the dude that joined the gang last - are the keypoints of the film.
Another indication that Scorcese appears to be back to his good times is this: the way that the characters exists here in full form, and not as counterfeits as in Gangs of New York. The dialogues of The Departed are torrents of obscenities and insults - but torrents meticulously modulated according to the temper of the person that pronounces them, specially brilliant in the case of Mark Wahlberg (no, this is not a typo). In other times, Scorcese would have chosen other heavy metal actors used to impose themselves by their weight in the scenes, such as his old favourites Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci. Here, starting with Jack Nicholson, first time with the director, all the cast is lighter and agile - and in all of it, from one point to the other, the interpretations are exceptional. Even so, there is no doubt that this is a Leonardo DiCaprio movie. Apathic in Gangs of New York and dislocated in The Aviator, he here reencounters his plummet (and, no less important, his ability to involve the audience) in a role much harder then the previous two. His Billy Conaghan is burdened by simultaneous wishes of survival and self-destruction, and by fantasies of failure and victory in impossible circumstances. And is, above all, very young and very lonely, in what finally appears to be a good use of the personal repertory of the actor.