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The Departed, finally a departure from mediocre cinema
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by Laura Sweeney on Oct 15, 2006
Martin Scorsese’s, The Departed is the best movie I’ve seen in a long
time. It’s a film about big ideas: brotherhood, loyalty, and the
difference between right and wrong. This epic film is like an
Irish version of the Godfather, but with no canoli, no comfortable
homes, and no promise of a pasta dinner waiting after the hit. In
fact, I don’t think I saw a single person eat in this movie.
Instead Scorsese weaves a gritty and raw world of the South Boston
Irish. It’s complete with harsh humor, ear-pinching Boston
brogues, Joyce quotes, bagpipe funerals and the Irish’s own crime
franchise: the state police.
“You could become cops or criminals. When you’re
facing a loaded gun, what’s the difference?” asks crime leader Frank
Costello, (Jack Nicholson.) As the story of two Irish cops unravels, one
an informant to the crime lord, the other undercover for the police, the
answer to this question becomes more and more elusive. Matt Damon delivers
an effortless performance as Colin Sullivan, the morally ambivalent
informant for crime leader Costello. Leonardo DiCaprio plays it very close
to the edge as a Billy Costigan, a young undercover cop wishing all along he
could either numb himself or escape but instead struggles to hang onto the
thinning thread of what he believes to be right. DiCaprio proves in this
film that he has finally grown up. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen him
do anything this visceral and one of the best moments in the film belongs to
him. While in his therapist’s office, he holds out his hand steadily while
he looks like he might kill someone and says so simply, “my hands never
shake.”
The casting is impeccable, it’s rare to see so many heavy hitters
placed in the same movie and each juicy role gives the actors a chance
to shine. It’s the best I’ve ever seen of Mark Wahlberg who was
direct and consistent the young bitter Dignam. Martin Sheen was
as smooth and steady as ever as the even keel as Captain Queenan.
Alec Baldwin (Ellerby) injected humor by somehow making his repeated
line, “go fuck yourself” more hilarious each time he said it. Then
there’s Jack Nicholson who gets away with a somewhat over the top, yet
entertaining, perverse and gritty performance as the maniacal father
figure and crime lord Frank Costello. Newcomer Vera Farmiga gracefully
holds her own in the far-fetched role of a Madolyn, a therapist who is
living with Sullivan and sleeping with Costigan. These two men having a
relationship with the same woman, however, seemed all too convenient
and unrealistic compared to the rest of the movie.
But what brings it all together is Scorsese. There is not a false
note in this movie. It reminds why Scorsese became “Scorsese” in the first
place. His impeccable direction underlines the fact that everyone in The
Departed is screwed from the beginning; it’s just a question of how they’ll
go down. He paints a fascinating world, including memorable artful violence,
using everything from a hat rack to a work boot as a weapon. He pays
meticulous attention to detail, from the ignition of lace curtains right
down to the groceries inside Sullivan’s brown paper bag. William Monahan’s
adaptation matches Scorsese's style especially with its careful evolution of
the relationship between Costigan and Sullivan. Monahan creates a world of
characters and places we can almost taste with his curt dialogue, cutting ayful insults, and use of silence.
“The Irish are the only race
impervious to psychoanalysis.” Freud once said. Sullivan quotes this to
psychotherapist Madolyn on their first date and despite her better
judgement, she’s hooked.And the audience is hooked as well. In an era of
films obsessed with self-discovery and psychobabble, I found it incredibly
refreshing to watch an entertaining movie where things happen and extremely
human characters enter into a high stakes struggle to live in brotherhood,
albeit corrupt and violent, it’s the only one they have.
Laura
Sweeney
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October 1, 2020
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