Review: The Departed

UK Release: 6th October 2006

After a run of solid, adventurous, but ultimately underwhelming efforts (Gangs of New York, The Aviator), The Departed finds director Martin Scorsese returning to more familiar form with a superior, Boston-set cops-and-gangsters story, based on the Hong Kong crime drama Infernal Affairs.

Rookie cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is assigned to go deep undercover to help catch local Mafia godfather Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Meanwhile, Costello has groomed Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) since puberty to be his spy on the force. The complex script (fluently adapted by William Monahan) rotates around these two moles, who orbit each other like twin suns for most of the movie, but only meet in the third act.

It all makes for extremely watchable entertainment. The leads are luminous (especially Nicholson, doing his best work in years here), but supporting players Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin and Ray Winstone all steal scenes with glee.

Radio Times rating:

****

UK cinema certificate 18
Running time 151mins

Review by Leslie Felperin

News: Jack Nicholson

The Departed‘s psychotic villain only has one project in the pipeline at the moment, buddy/road movie The Bucket List. Playing alongside Morgan Freeman, the two veteran actors play men dying of cancer who escape from hospital to go on a road trip, fulfilling all their fantasies before it’s too late.

News: Mark Wahlberg

Though only taking a supporting role in Scorsese’s The Departed, Wahlberg will soon be back in the lead.

First up is We Own the Night, alongside Robert Duvall, Joaquin Phoenix and Eva Mendes, with Wahlberg playing a New York nightclub manager trying to save his family from hitmen from the Russian mafia. After that, Wahlberg will turn hitman himself for director Antoine Fuqua (King Arthur) as an assassin set up as the fall-guy for the attempted murder of the US Presdent US President in Shooter.

The less said about the announced sequel to the abysmal remake of the Italian Job, provisionally titled The Brazilian Job, the better, but Wahlberg will be returning to do yet more damage to the memory of the Michael Caine classic some time in 2008.

News: Leonardo DiCaprio

The Departed‘s star, as well as teaming up again with director Martin Scorsese for historical biopic The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, has already finished shooting Blood Diamond for The Last Samurai director Edward Zwick. Starring alongside Djimon Hounsou (already tipped for an Oscar for his work on the film) and Jennifer Connelly, Leo plays a mercenary in civil war-torn Seirra Leone who teams up with Hounsou’s humble fisherman for a priceless pink diamond.

DiCaprio has also been attached to the next project from Syriana writer/director Stephen Gaghan, Blink, based on Gaghan’s own book of short stories about first impressions and snap judgements. Less cerebrally, Leo is also linked with a possible forthcoming adaptation of Robert Ludlum’s political thriller The Chancellor Manuscript.

News: Matt Damon

The Departed‘s Damon continues to be one of the hardest-working stars in film, with two films already completed and two more currently filming since wrapping on Scorsese’s latest.

Of those already completed, first up is the highly promising The Good Shepherd. Directed by Robert De Niro, Damon takes the lead opposite De Niro, Angelina Jolie, Joe Pesci and Alec Baldwin in this period piece drama about the founding of the CIA, written by the hugely talented Forrest Gump, The Insider, Ali and Munich screenwriter Eric Roth. After that he’ll be popping up in Margaret alongside Anna Paquin, Mark Ruffalo, Matthew Broderick and Jean Reno in this coming of age drama about a teenage girl convinced that she caused a traffic accident.

Damon is currently busy filming the third movies in two separate franchises – Ocean’s Thirteen and The Bourne Ultimatum. If you’ve seen the last films in either of those two series, it should be fairly obvious which one’s likely to be the best…

News: Martin Scorsese

The Departed director Martin Scorsese has announced two new projects, both of which have the potential to win him his long-overdue Oscar, but is currently co-directing an as-yet untitled documentary on – perhaps inspired by his plane-packed The Aviator – the Airbus passenger aircraft.

Of his two announced movie projects, one – Silence – will be set in 17th century Japan, following two Catholic missionaries forced to hide their faith, based on the classic 1966 novel by Shusaku Endo. The other, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, will see Scorsese team up once again with his new favourite leading man for a late 19th century period piece, as Leonardo DiCaprio tackles the early years of the future American President.