The Departed
By Al Kratina
October 20, 2006 - 16:00
Writer(s): William Monahan, Siu Fak Mak, Felix Chong (screenplay)
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Release Date: 2006, USA
The cast is perfectly structured from the ground up. Even overlooking such heavyweights as Jack Nicholson and Martin Sheen, strong supporting turns by Ray Winstone, Mark Walhberg, and Running Scared’s Vera Farmiga do justice to a strong, meaty screenplay. This is one of the few instances where the remake may be a better film than the original. Infernal Affairs got bogged down in its own twists, turns, and Asian love of high tech cell-phones that tell time, play G Unit singles and turn into Autobots at the touch of a button, but Scorsese’s remake tells the complicated story clearly. The screenplay, adapted by William Monahan from Siu Fak Mak and Felix Chong’s original, is tightly structured, despite the film’s 2 and a half hour length, and wastes little time while simultaneously refusing to skimp on important character development. Leonard DiCaprio plays the undercover cop, and for once in his professional life doesn’t look like a 12 year-old wearing a fake beard to a Halloween dance. Matt Damon, as the crooked cop, proves that Boston produces more than frat boys with alcohol poisoning, and almost redeems himself for loosing Ben Affleck on the world with Good Will Hunting. Jack Nicholson, I’m a little more concerned about. I feel that maybe he went a little crazy during the filming of The Shining, and is now struggling with mild to severe Marlon Brando-ism, showing up to set without pants and defecating instead of finishing sentences. While this always infuses his roles with a sense of danger, that danger is that he’s going to start yelling like Al Pacino on amphetamines, and no one with intact eardrums wants that. Nevertheless, whether he’s acting or genuinely unhinged, Nicholson sells the role of gangster Frank Costello completely.
Martin Scorsese’s direction is, as always, a unique blend of traditional Hollywood narrative techniques and Brakhage/Snow-esque structuralism, telling a strong story while constantly reminding you that you’re watching a movie. But where The Aviator and perhaps Gangs of New York fell victim to this strange amalgam of styles, here the techniques help the story instead of hinder it. The cinematography, by Michael Ballhaus, is bright, clear, and sharp, contrasting the dark, gritty tone of the film, and somehow enhancing it. While the film isn’t perfect, it’s the closest Scorsese has come in a while, and that’s certainly worth its weight in f-bombs.
Rating: 8/10
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The Departed