One of Scorsese's very best.

Rating: 10/10 (6 April 2013)

How can you make a storyline that borderlines the implausible work? Ask Scorsese. The master director is no stranger to tackling preposterous story-lines that end up becoming some miraculous films. Take for example the masterful "After Hours", in which he demonstrated how you can take a ridiculous story and churn it into some kind of a classic with terrific storytelling. Now, with "The Departed", Scorsese concocts one of the very best films of his immaculate career.
Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a rookie cop, freshly recruited by Capt. Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Staff Sgt. Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) as an informant to help them implicate the Irish mob boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). He is the perfect bait, partly because of his family's prior involvement in organized crime. Billy starts off slow, catching Costello's attention and slowly working his way up the mob and finally gaining his trust. Staff Sgt. Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) is the endearing new officer in the SIU who has everyone's trust, including a psychiatrist Mandolyn Madden (Vera Farmiga). Also, he's Costello's surrogate son who is his mole in the police unit. At first, a simple act of loyalty on both sides quickly turns into a desperate battle for survival when both the men realize the need to locate the identities of each other while trying to keep their identity concealed.
As always, it is a pleasure to watch a film where Scorsese protrudes and dissects a crime story with such glorious skill and fervor. Though I haven't seen "Infernal Affairs", I can safely state that "The Departed" is by no means a flimsy remake, given the uncanny skill with which the story is handled. Take for instance a well-written and superbly etched-out scene where Costello beguiles a young Sullivan by buying him comic books and groceries. It's an honest portrait of how the ingenuous turn into the gullible and Scorsese works wonders by giving it a little piquant twist with the dark humor. It's remarkable how a Hong Kong-based story can be transported to an American setting with such deft precision and William Monahan writes wonderfully, giving the characters enough time and feeling until they become someone you can relate to. The plot unravels with genuine disregard for what happens to everything irrelevant to the story, and editor Thelma Schoonmaker marvelously cuts and trims to keep it rife with violent tension.
Peopled by some outstanding actors, the cast is to die for. If a Scorsese film stars the ever-magnificent Nicholson, you don't need another reason why it should warrant a viewing. Nicholson is dazzling as the slightly psychotic Costello and it's pure delight to watch him play a creepy mobster with devilish traits. DiCaprio and Damon likewise are excellent in their respective roles, bringing the urgency and desperation to their characters effortlessly. The rest of the cast is stellar, with Mark Wahlberg turning in a remarkable performance as the foul-mouthed tough cop Dignam, something, admittedly, I had not expected him to pull off.
"The Departed" is Scorsese's best film since "Goodfellas" but it's not as good, sadly. But here is a film that respects its genre and it's one that's not all cops-and-guns but instead goes much deeply and illustrates with ruthless candor what circumstances force us to become.