The Departed Review
by Homer Yen (homer_yen AT yahoo DOT com)October 22nd, 2006
Dearly ~{!0~}Departed~{!1~}
by Homer Yen
(c) 2006
The young guns of Hollywood have come out for
this engaging film from an old-timer who knows
how to tell a blood-soaked story of good cops and
bad cops and the lives they lead. That old-timer would be the skilled Martin Scorsese, who has
adapted for American audiences a film that was originally made in Hong Kong back in 2002. That
film is called ~{!0~}Infernal Affairs, which I remember vaguely seeing on video some time back.
But Hong Kong police stories, with its stylized action, glitzy look, and elliptical storylines,
always seemed bigger than life, and thus a
26~{!1~} diagonal television set and a VCR tape
(which was probably pirated) could do that
viewing no justice.
I can~{!/~}t really draw any comparisons with the
Hong Kong version, but I can say that Scorsese
has created some of his better work here, with characters full of spit and fire in the violent underworld. Above all else, ~{!0~}Departed~{!1~}
is a movie driven by interesting characters. One
is funnily inept (such as Alec Baldwin). One is confident and poised (such as Mark Wahlberg).
One is fearsome (such as Matt Damon). One is deliciously villainous (such as Jack Nicholson).
And yet one seemed unable to really emote (such
as Leonardo DiCaprio).
In a sense, Leo is the key to the film, but his performance seemed lumpy and perhaps I just couldn~{!/~}t erase the image of him screaming
out ~{!0~}I~{!/~}m the king of the world~{!1~}
from that romantic tearjerker that was ~{!0~}Titanic~{!1~}. Working for the State
Police, he has ingratiated himself to the local
Boston crime boss, played by Jack Nicholson, with
the intent of finding an opportunity to alert his superiors so that the law can finally catch him
in the act. In all fairness, Leo~{!/~}s
character is in a void of moral ambiguity. So, there~{!/~}s not much he can do from a dramatic
point of view. One the one hand, he wants to
help the police department. On the other, maybe
the criminal life has its rewards. Oddly, in a violent crime saga such as this, Leo isn~{!/~}t exposed to very much wrongdoing except for the occasional beat-down. He begins to panic because
the crime boss knows that someone is tipping the police off. But the more arresting approach
would be for Leo to start facing his inner
tug-of-war.
Our villain is a smart one, and he has an
informant in the police department to keep him
one step ahead. Our mole in the police
department relishes his power, his command of the situation, and his personal ego-boosting
conquests. It~{!/~}s compelling to watch the
parallel stories of these two moles unfold as
they race to uncover the infiltrator before their
own identity is revealed.
The director makes no apologies for this gritty
film. ~{!0~}Departed~{!1~} features a bevy of noteworthy characters and performances. It
showcases tense stakeouts and face-offs. It
creates an array of interesting relationships and partnerships. And it has the right stuff and the brutal tonality that one would expect from a cops-and-crime film such as this.
Grade: B+
S: 2 out of 3
L: 3 out of 3
V: 3 out of 3
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
