THE DEPARTED

Director: Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Taxi Driver)
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen

Scorsese found fame with his gritty and intense, ultra violent character studies like Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. His partner on most of those masterpieces was Robert DeNiro. Later in his career Scorsese has found a new acting partner for a new phase in his movies, Leonardo DiCaprio. The Aviator and Gangs of New York were quite different movies from those earlier pictures. The Aviator was a fine study of a brilliant recluse, although far from Scorsese's best work. Gangs of New York was a decent, although highly flawed combination period piece/gang movie. Both of these films had their moments of focused intensity that defined his best films, but there's no denying that both pictures also yearned for mass appeal. These works were far from "sell outs", but they were a shade closer to cineplex fare then some of his earlier works. I'm not disparaging this, just noting the sort of films that Scorsese and DiCaprio are doing, because the Departed is a large step forward along this same trajectory. It is a highly entertaining, exciting crime story that is both mass entertainment and insightful character study. It's also just a damn good movie.

Although long (what a surprise from Scorsese), it is rarely dull. The plot seems more suited to a John Woo film (a la Face/Off or some such), but Scorsese indelibly makes it his own. The story follows two 'rats', an undercover police officer planted deep inside an Irish gang in Boston (DiCaprio) and a police officer (Damon) who secretly works for that same gang boss. Scorsese wonderfully shows us their contradictions, DiCaprio is forced to live in filth both literally and morally on the edge of society, while Damon is clean cut and upwardly mobile, a yuppie for the ages who's heart is still black. Nicholson is in his element as the off-the-wall gang leader searching for the rat in his organization, never knowing who to believe. He's getting older and perhaps hoping that he can find someone to trust after all of his years of lonely corruption. He takes DiCaprio under his wing in his organization, wanting to believe in him.

In the end there is so much about trust and corruption and even statements on goverment buried under the surface of this film, that it's hard to believe the surface is so enjoyable. We see how in government (and elsewhere) our every sense may tell us that an individual is to be trusted, but that his soul is dark. We also see an exciting cat and mouse crime drama with each side playing against the other. There' s gory violence that isn't overdone in the slighest. Rather it leads the film into the realm of Shakespearian tragedy (I'm serious). Over all of this there's a great deal of humor, much of it provided by Wahlberg's foul-mouthed bad cop to Martin Sheen's good cop. It's almost unbelievable how much was shoved into this story (and how much came out) and that it still works as exciting entertainment.

I do not think that The Departed is quite at the level of Scorsese's great masterpieces, but it is no more than a half step below, if that. This is an excellent film, a fine addition to the Scorsese canon. At the least this is his best work since Goodfellas and The Age of Innocence (which happen to be two of the best films of the last 15 years).

Standouts: Most everything.
Blowouts: Not too much. Certainly some things worked better than others, but it's at such a high level that can be excused. Perhaps there were *too* many stars in the film.

Grade: A