Based upon the hugely popular 2002 Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, The Departed remains remarkably true to its original form. But director Martin Scorsese takes this story a step further through deeper, more vulnerable characters. The great contrast is artistically depicted between the two leading men playing spies for opposing sides. Ultimately, these two men experience tragedy and irony being forced to live a lie.
The first spy is Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) mentored by south Boston mob boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) to enter the police force and serve as the gang's mole. Over the years, Sullivan's hard work earns him a promotion in the Special Investigation Unit whose main objective is to take down Costello. Now Sullivan struggles to maintain his clean reputation as a dedicated cop while still serving as Costello's faithful informant.
The second spy is Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio), a police rookie with a notorious family history and hot-head reputation, chosen to infiltrate the Costello gang. The police publicly kick Costigan out of the academy for a phony minor offense, have him serve a prison sentence, so Costigan can eventually enter Costello's gang. Despite Costello's suspicion of Costigan's former employment, Costello eventually includes him in his big drug deals.
These two moles working on opposite sides of the law is the basis of this creative thriller. Sullivan and Costigan's mirror relationship illustrates the irony of these two men's lives. While good cop Costigan has to commit endless crimes in the mob, undercover criminal Sullivan enjoys his comfortable lifestyle and success. Costigan's reputation and gangster lifestyle prevents from developing a romantic relationship while Sullivan invites his girlfriend to move in with him. However, both men still have to deal with the deception and lies that come with their jobs, and both must suffer in their stranded state between good and evil.
Scorsese portrayed the conflicting roles of these two characters very faithfully to the original story, but also added a few new twists as well. Nicholson's character had a dramatically larger role in the story. And although Nicholson is still playing the same old crazy 'Jack,' he's still cool as the fanatical villain. But Scorsese also adds new character Detective Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) as a counterpart to Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen), the only two men who know about Costigan's true identity. Dignam's foul-mouthed comments and intimidating presence surprisingly steals most of the scenes involving veteran actor Sheen.
Scorsese easily hooked me into the world of The Departed so much I hardly noticed the movie was over two hours long. The story had great flow and movement, and terrific camera shots. In the middle of the film, you don't even notice that the actors almost never interact. But the conflict between Sullivan and Costigan is so well illustrated visually that it looks as though these actors are playing off each other. As an adaptation and as a story, this was a very cool and artistic film.
Kristin's Grade: A
Director: Martin Scorsese
Based on: Infernal Affairs (2002) directed by Andrew Lau and Siu Fai Mak
Genre: Drama / Crime / Thriller
Running Time: 149 minutes
Rated: R (for strong brutal violence, pervasive language, some strong sexual content and drug material)
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