The Departed

March 4, 2007

Rated: R Runtime: 149 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Did you ever play the game Jenga? For those not familiar, the game is played with a bunch of wooden blocks which are stacked up in a vertical column. Each player in turn removes a block without causing the column to collapse…but it inevitibly does.

The Departed is a lot like Jenga except it’s played with people instead of wooden blocks. There are two columns of people – the Massachusetts State Police and the Irish Syndicate of Boston. At the top of one column is Captain Oliver Queenan (Sheen), the policeman with a serious hard on for the man at the top of the other column, Frank Costello (Nicholson), the leader of Boston’s Irish crime syndicate. Below each man are his various lieutenants, workers, and peons. And at the bottom of each column one will find the various “innocent bystanders” associated with each faction.

The two players in our game of fleshy Jenga are Billy Costigan (DiCaprio), a near wash-out cadet whose violent tendancies ironically earn him the chance to redeem himself by infiltrating Costello’s syndicate, and Colin Sullivan (Damon), Costello’s hand-picked operative assigned to join the state police and provide the syndicate with tipoffs as to what the badges are up to.

Costigan and Sullivan are each inserted into the columns of their enemies and the game is on. They both deftly manage to manuever and scheme as good moles do and the bodies start to pile up as they are pushed out of their respective columns. And all the while the two players are unaware of the other’s existence.

As the situation grows grim for both sides and the columns are starting to look a little shaky, it becomes obvious to the players that each camp has been compromised. This is when the pressure cooker gets cranked up. Both Costigan and Sullivan begin in earnest to learn who the other is so they can be exposed and eliminated. They bob and weave better than Muhammed Ali ever could and, before long, the bodies are flying out of the columns. And not just from the bottom end, either. After a couple of jolting and unexpected deaths, it becomes apparent that you can’t count anyone as being off limits to the grim reaper.

The final act is an elegant (if maybe a bit too contrived), whirling-dervish inspired dance of death. I was beginning to wonder at one point if they were going to run out of characters on the screen to off and would have to resort to killing gaffers, cameramen and maybe a caterer or two.

In addition to having this adrenalin-packed story, The Departed also benefits from some DAMN fine acting. DiCaprio, whom I’ve pretty much loathed previously, impressed me. Damon and Farmiga are in fine form as well. Jack Nicholson is..well…he’s Jack! Sheen & Baldwin manage to not make me want to hurl my lunch which, if you knew how much I couldn’t stand these men, you’d understand how impressive that is as well. The true standout of them all, however, is Wahlberg as Sheen’s right-hand man, Sgt. Dignam. He must have bribed the writers because he got almost ALL of the great lines and he delivers them with the zeal of a crusader and the viciousness of an inquisitor…and he easily steals every scene he’s in.

As great as the good stuff is, however the movie is not quite perfect. As alluded to earlier, some things are a bit too contrived. In addition to parts of the final act, the entire love triangle was bordering on being laughably ludicrous. Additionally, there are some gaps in the story…some leaps of logic, if you will, that will confuse some audience members at the end of the movie. I was confused a couple of times and had to think about how what I’d just seen could have plausibly happened…and I figured it out, but Scorsese really should have taken another 60-90 seconds of screen time to fill those gaps in. Hell, the movie is nearly two and half hours long; another minute or two wouldn’t have hurt.

Compared to the positives this movie has, however, these are relatively minor quibbles. I strongly recommend that everyone head out to see this one on opening weekend so as to avoid having your co-workers or neighbors accidently spoil the surprises for you. You’ll be glad you did!

Popularity: 8% [?]

Posted by Alex | Filed Under 4 Stars, Action, DVD, Drama, Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Sheen, Matt Damon, R, Thriller, Vera Farmiga