THE DEPARTED

Directed by the all-time great, Martin Scorsese, I knew The Departed (2007’s Best Picture winner) would be intense, gritty, well-acted, and completely engrossing. It was all that and more. Was it my favorite Scorsese film? No. Was it one of the best Oscar-winning films I’ve seen? No. Was it a great movie? Hell yes.

In a nutshell, a member of a local mob goes undercover in the Massachusetts State Police force. Meanwhile, a member of the Special Investigations unit of the same Police Force works his way into being accepted by the local mob. Both of these gentlemen act as moles in the interest of their opposing bosses. Without either mole knowing it, their lives are intertwined through a third party who is completely unaware of either character’s true goal or nature.

By far the best performance is that of Jack Nicholson as mob boss Frank Costello. That is not meant to be a slight in any way against the rousing performances of Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio who play the two mole characters. Several supporting cast members including Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin, and Vera Farmiga also turn in engaging characterizations. The only actor I felt did not rise to the level of the others was Mark Wahlberg as Staff Sergeant Dignam. I found his acting to be very one-note and affectatious. Oddly, he was the only actor from this movie who was nominated for an Acting Oscar, so my opinion seems to be in the minority!

In the first few minutes of the film, mob boss Costello meets his eventual mole, Colin, when he’s still a boy. Colin is sitting at the lunch counter of a local convenience store and the setting is the 70’s. Costello buys some items for the boy and asks him if he likes comic books. Young Colin says yes, so Costello adds a comic book to the boy’s bag. Sadly, the comic he hands him is one that wouldn’t be published until the late 80’s. This anachronism and lack of attention to detail set things off on a bad note with me, but as the story picked up it was eventually dismissed, though I did find myself constantly on the lookout for other such errors which detracted from my overall experience.

I’m still unsure if I think the ending was satisfying or not. It wasn’t, and yet it was. Perhaps the continual self-debate I’m having is merely a reflection of how good the movie really was overall.