Friday night, I finally got an opportunity to see Martin Scorsese’s The Departed. It is a remake of the popular Hong Kong crime thriller Infernal Affairs. Here’s a summary according to IMDb:
In South Boston, the state police force is waging war on Irish-American organized crime. Young undercover cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is assigned to infiltrate the mob syndicate run by gangland chief Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). While Billy quickly gains Costello’s confidence, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), a hardened young criminal who has infiltrated the police department as an informer for the syndicate, is rising to a position of power in the Special Investigation Unit.
Each man becomes deeply consumed by his double life, gathering information about the plans and counter-plans of the operations he has penetrated. But when it becomes clear to both the mob and the police that there’s a mole in their midst, Billy and Colin are suddenly in danger of being caught and exposed to the enemy-and each must race to uncover the identity of the other man in time to save himself. But is either willing to turn on the friends and comrades they’ve made during their long stints undercover?
plot and story
The plot is pretty straightforward. There are no spoilers in the description, because all of this is pretty much laid out in the first 30 minutes of the film. There are twists, but for once that’s not this films strength. Twists are good and all, but this film shines through good old fashioned good story telling. There’s witty dialog, an easy to follow story and believable performances from all the actors. There are a couple of WTF moments, but for the most part this is a solid film. Somehow, it manages to be funny and deadly serious at the same time. I don’t know how, but what I do know is that I laughed a lot… but I never felt like I was watching a comedy.
cast and performances
This is a must see film. The cast brings new meaning to the term “All-Star”. Every minor character is played by a major actor. I mean Nicholson, DiCaprio and Damon are just the tip of the iceberg. There’s also Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Alec Balwin and Anthony Anderson… okay, maybe Anderson isn’t exactly “A” list, but I’m glad to see him in a role that doesn’t involve buffoonery in some form.
I’m gonna have to say that Wahlberg’s character is pretty standout. Everything he said was hilarious… his character, Dignam, was over-the-top tough and spent most of the movie punking other characters and spouting one liners. Actually, just about every character said something that I’ll be quoting for years to come. If you know me, you know how much I love quoting films!
conclusion
This is a shorter review than I usually write, but that’s mostly because this is an easy film to recommend. There’s next to nothing negative to say about this film. Just go watch it. That’s the end of the review.
This was a great movie!!!!! I enjoyed the entire movie watching experience.