Movie Info
Movie Name: The Departed
Studio: Warner Bros.
Genre(s): Drama
Release Date(s): October 6, 2006
MPAA Rating: R
Aaaaahhh! Don’t hit me!!!
Two officers…both Boston born and raised, find themselves working different sides of the law. Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) aspires to be a state officer while Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) was tapped early by local Irish mobster Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) and put through school. When Captain Oliver Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Staff Sergeant Sean Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) decide to send Costigan undercover in Costello’s mob, a cat-and-mouse game begins to develop as Costigan and Sullivan try to determine each other’s identities.
The Departed was a remake of a Hong Kong film called Internal Affairs (2002) and garnered Martin Scorsese his first Academy Award for Best Director. It also received the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Editing, and Best Adapted Screenplay with an additional nomination for Wahlberg for Best Supporting Actor.
Damon, get out of my face…if you want to win an acting Oscar quit hanging out with Affleck
The movie is a good combination of who knows what when and rising tension as DiCaprio and Damon try to ferret out each other as moles and moves at a rather fast pace. Sometimes, it is a bit difficult to tell how much time has passed for the characters, but the writer does a good job of occasionally dropping references to time frames for DiCaprio. The movie is violent and bloody and has some really shocking deaths.
The Departed isn’t my favorite Scorsese film, but it is very good. It almost felt like a “here, we’ve screwed up in the past, here is your Oscar” for Scorsese. Of the nominated movies however, it was the best. Leonardo DiCaprio is great, Matt Damon is good, but DiCaprio probably has the tougher role to pull off. I have never been a Mark Wahlberg fan. He was good in Boogie Nights and The Fighter, but he also wasn’t playing the brightest of characters. I think he works in this movie but his fast-talking foul mouth schtick gets a bit old and feels very scripted instead of acted. Dr. Madolyn Madden (Vera Farmiga) as the woman trapped between DiCaprio and Damon seems like a bit of a weak throw away character.
