I for one thought that The Aviator, Scorsese's last picture, deserved to be awarded the Best Picture of the year. It was something of a change of pace for Marty, but one that I thought he pulled off nicely. Now, with The Departed, maybe because of the ultimate reaction to The Aviator, Scorsese has returned to the mobster genre that he's famous for. While it might be ground that he's covered before, it's also ground that he handles like a pro, building a tense and taut thriller that grabs you and entertains you all the way through it.
About the only thing this Scorsese movie is missing is Robert De Niro. The lead is played by Marty's new leading man, Leonardo DiCaprio, with whom he's now made three movies in a row. But De Niro could have played the part that Nicholson plays, that of Frank Costello, the Irish Mobster who runs the Boston Underworld. Leo plays Billy, a State Cop who goes deep undercover, pretending to work for Costello. What Billy doesn't know is that Costello has his own man working undercover with the Police. Damon, who finally gets to use his Boston accent again, plays Colin Sullivan, a Detective on Costello's payroll. As Billy worms his way deeper into Costello's operations, it becomes a race to see who can figure out the identity of who first.
As you'd expect from a Scorsese film, The Departed is both long and violent, although I don't mean that it's long in a bad way. Although it could have been trimmed a little bit, the movie never really drags, as the suspense builds to the final confrontation. The only parts that maybe could have been trimmed are the scenes with the female psychiatrist with whom both Billy and Colin have an affair. As for the violence, if you have a problem with that, you probably shouldn't be seeing a Scorsese movie anyway.
DiCaprio always surprises me. When I see or hear about him in between movies I tend to dismiss him as a pretty boy who likes to party too much. This always makes me forget just how good an actor he is, as he proves here yet again. His Billy is intense and a little unstable, and you root for him all the way. Damon, who has now left his old friend Ben Affleck so far behind, that he's only a distant figure in the rearview mirror, also does an excellent job as the slimy bad cop that you just can't wait to see get his comeuppance (if he does, that is). As for Nicholson, this is the kind of larger-than-life role that he eats up for breakfast. Even Mark Wahlberg, whom you might think is the odd man out in this distinguished company, does a great job as the tough cop who doesn't take shit from anyone.
While it's doubtful that this movie will win any awards, who cares? This is an intense and entertaining mobster movie by the master of the genre that comes with a sting in its tail that will keep you guessing right up until the end.
