If you've left me a rating on either my Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus or In the Valley of Elah reviews...
If you've left me a rating on either my Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus or In the Valley of Elah reviews, please let me know as they are showing up as 'not yet rated' even though at least fifteen of you have rated each one.
Member since:11.07.2000
Reviews:778
Members who trust:82
Boston's criminal underworld is murky indeed. Undercover cop Billy Costigan is charged with infiltrating the mob syndicate run by mobster Costello. Meanwhile Costello's mole Colin Sullivan is working his way up the ranks of the Special Investigation Unit. The two men are consumed by their double life, but when the police and the gangster realise there is an informant in their midst, Colin and Billy are both in danger of being exposed to the enemy. So each has to race to uncover the identity of the other in order to save himself.
So here it is; the movie that finally won Martin Scorsese an Oscar. But does it live up to the hype? Well, yes and no. It's an engrossing, meticulously crafted film that makes the most of a large and varied cast. It has a strong sense of time and place and has a keen eye for detail. The atmosphere remains tense throughout and you're never under any illusion that these people are dangerous and deadly and that someone is clearly going down. Everybody's situation is precarious and the film is never predictable. There are consequences for every action though not necessarily the one you might expect. The gangster lifestyle is never glorified; there is no code of honour no matter how deep ties run. Violence is nasty and brutish and the results are often gory if occasionally stylised. But I don't think this is Scorsese's best work because I don't believe he understands every iota of the Irish-American way of life as he does the Italian-American and it sometimes feels like he's trying to impose his own beliefs on the film. When it comes to the visuals there are some clumsy moments. The freeze-frame
deaths and the seemingly random use of iris fades in and out of scenes feel like throwbacks to the director's French new wave-inspired early days and the rat on a balcony closing shot is a facile metaphor for high-level corruption.
Scorsese is a very thorough director, perhaps too thorough. He juxtaposes key events in the lives of his two main protagonists and montages of their training, which are very effective at showing how two people from similar backgrounds can go down opposite paths if their influences are so different. Sparks only really fly when the two leads go head to head. But it makes for a very long film, clocking in at a whopping hundred and fifty-one minutes of comparing and contrasting. It could easily have lost half an hour without scrimping on action or narrative clarity. At its present length it can feel a trifle self-indulgent. On the other hand the director maintains the tension required for this kind of cat-and-mouse story throughout, so the occasional extended silent face-off over the phone works.
The screenplay by William Monahan is a tightly plotted police thriller that stands on its own two feet, despite being a remake of a Hong Kong action movie. There are plenty of twists, turns and near misses to keep the action motoring along as the two moles try to uncover each other. But it is one of those films that works on several levels; most obviously dealing with themes of loyalty and betrayal. It is also a study of young men looking for father figures. While Costigan is taken under the wing of the morally upstanding policeman Queenan, Sullivan falls in with the grasping and repugnant Costello. Both suffer for their loyalty to these men and Costigan even has to endure a sort of sibling rivalry in the form of Dignam's tirades because he fears being replaced and the physical abuse from Costello's close-knit group of thugs. But there is no real code of honour - morals are muddy and infinitely flexible. How else can an undercover cop keep his identity secret if not by indulging in criminal acts and taking on the cops? And what are the deaths of a few innocent bystanders to a police mole that needs to maintain his position?
The majority of characters are detailed and if not entirely realistic, consistent with the world of the film. The two main protagonists have complete back-stories and enough strengths and weaknesses to convince. And though Costello may be larger than life, he stops short of caricature. The dialogue sounds realistic enough because Monahan understands the speech patterns of the Bostonians and throws in shed-loads of casual swearing.
Now Leonardo DiCaprio's out of the pretty-boy phase of his life, he seems determined to prove himself as an actor and that's exactly what he does as conflicted Billy Costigan. He's permanently tense as the undercover cop, as if aware that any moment could be his last. But he covers this with bravado and a hair-trigger temper that is as much a liability as a blessing. He gives a convincing portrait of someone whose nerves are constantly being shredded and his anger at all around him is palpable. His face has taken on a thuggish aspect, mainly because of his default frown, while his physique makes him look like a real scrapper. His accent occasionally wanders, but the strength of his performance overrides this.
As Colin Sullivan, Matt Damon is a total contrast to DiCaprio. His preppy, perpetually boyish looks make him appear like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth and he is surprisingly charming for the usually bland actor. But he is also cold, detached and smug on occasion, displaying a much wider emotional range than I have come to expect from the often impassive Damon. He's almost reptilian, showing a low cunning that is sustained throughout so you never know quite what to expect. Jack Nicholson is clearly having a whale of a time as mob boss Frank Costello. He's utterly repellent as a man who has made a living from other people's suffering and is entirely self-serving. But for all the nastiness, he is strangely watchable. It's probably got something to do with his laconic delivery and the darkly comic aspects of the part that have him playing with everyone for his own amusement.
Mark Wahlberg was thoroughly deserving of his Oscar nomination for the role of police sergeant Dignam. He manages to sustain a performance of such unbridled venom that it's sometimes hard to watch as his thoroughly disparages everything that falls within his purview. And he's the only cast member that sustains the Boston accent convincingly (not surprising considering he's from the city). That's far more than can be said of our own Ray Winstone, whose accent wanders off wherever it pleases for much of the film. He's pretty one-dimensional as Costello's right-hand thug, so you never get a sense of him as a real person.
The soundtrack juxtaposes classic rock from the likes of the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd with loud Oirish rock, hip-hop, blues and opera. Howard Shore's original score struggles to be heard amongst them. He relies on string-based arrangements that either rise to a crescendo at important moments or lean on insistent beats to lend them some impetus. Overall the non-original tracks are more effective because they have greater depth and are more capable of mirroring or enhancing the scenes they accompany.
"The Departed" is an engrossing, if overlong police drama that is finely crafted by its writer and director and well-played by almost all involved. However, for all its credentials of quality, I couldn't bring myself to love it. Perhaps it is just too male a film (there are hardly any women in it) or maybe it is too earnest for my tastes. Whatever the case, though I appreciated its craftsmanship, I didn't enjoy it as much as I felt I should.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Thriller - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Timothy West, Neil Morrissey, Tara Fitzgerald, Annette Crosbie, Pauline Quirke, Rob Brydon, Denise Van Outen, John Thomson, Kevin Whately, David Suchet
Production Year: 2002 - Thriller - Director: Bharat Nalluri, Rob Bailey, Andy Wilson - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Matthew MacFadyen, Keeley Hawes, David Oyelowo, Peter Firth, Jenny Agutter, Lisa Faulkner
Martin Scorsese makes a welcomed return to the mean streets (of Boston, in this case) ... more
withThe Departed, hailed by many as Scorsese's best film sinceCasino. Since this crackling crime thriller is essentially a Scorsese-stamped remake of the acclaimed 20...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Rookie cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) grew up in crime. That makes him the perfect ... more
mole, the man on the inside of the mob run by boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). It's his job to win the perfect mole, the man in the inside of the mob ran by...
Martin Scorsese makes a welcomed return to the mean streets (of Boston, in this case) ... more
withThe Departed, hailed by many as Scorsese's best film sinceCasino. Since this crackling crime thriller is essentially a Scorsese-stamped remake of the acclaimed 20...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Cops or criminals; when you're facing a loaded gun what's the difference? A big-budget ... more
Hollywood star power remake of the Hong Kong classic crime thriller Infernal Affairs. Two men operate on different sides of the law; one a mole with the Boston Sta...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
Advantages: Superb performances all-round; top calibre thriller; fresh departure for Scorsese; complex and original story; fantastic script Disadvantages: Not really Scorsese's film; overly choppy editing at times; occasional poor use of soundtrack
harlequin21 21.02.2007 ·
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of The Departed (DVD)
Advantages: Witty, gritty, thrilling... the best gangster film I've seen in years. Disadvantages: A bit of a Deus ex machina ending, some predictable moments...negligable really
Entwife 08.06.2007 (04.02.2008)
·
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of The Departed (DVD)
![The Departed (2006) [DVD]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78048669.jpg "The Departed (2006) [DVD]")
Apr 4th, 2007
very helpful by (100%):
