The Departed

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin, Vera Farmiga, Ray Winstone

Rated R

Directed by Martin Scorsese

            With “The Departed,” Martin Scorsese has not simply made his best film since “Goodfellas,” but possibly the best film since “Goodfellas,” period. Few films in the past twenty years have had the humor, surprise or power that Scorsese’s latest crime drama contains, and the performances given by the spellbinding cast prove that Scorsese still gets the best acting out of any director around.

            Based on the 2002 foreign thriller “Infernal Affairs,” “The Departed” revolves around Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio), a young Bostonian who enlists in the Boston Police Academy after growing up with a family of thugs. After basic police training, he is told by wise Captain Oliver Queenan (Martin Sheen) and ruthless Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) that his family’s criminal record is simply too shady for Billy to become an officer. However, Queenan decides that Billy would be perfect as an operative mole in the underground mob workings of Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson), the local crime boss of Boston whom Queenan, Dignam, and Ellerby (Alec Baldwin) have been attempting to incarcerate for years. As Billy becomes immersed in the criminal world of the seductive Costello, the line between cop and criminal becomes unclear.

            The film’s other main plotline follows officer Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), Costello’s top mole inside the Boston Police Department. Over the years, Costello has eluded incarceration due to Colin’s helpful hints as to when Queenan and Dignam plan to strike. But when Billy and Colin begin to suspect a mole inside each other’s respective departments, they are ordered by their superiors to track down the “rat” and smoke him out. Meanwhile, beautiful therapist Madolyn (Vera Farmiga) begins a relationship with both Billy and Colin, and as the plot thickens, the film’s tagline becomes ever more resonant: cops or criminals - when you’re facing a loaded gun, what’s the difference?

              The cast is uniformly excellent – Nicholson, of course, steals the show as the sleazy and sporadically violent boss Costello. Whether he’s cracking Billy’s arm apart, tossing cocaine across the room in joyful glee, or making remarks like, “She fell funny” after firing a bullet into a woman’s head, Nicholson makes the most of a character that should win him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Damon is equally good as a complicated man torn between two sides of the law, and Wahlberg ignites his scenes with a fury that should also make him an Oscar candidate. But the movie’s standout is Leonardo DiCaprio, who, after a great performance in “The Aviator,” unleashes his inner Brando and creates a vivid character that drives “The Departed” along its bloody, brutal road. Billy Costigan is the passionate heart of “The Departed,” and DiCaprio turns in what may be the best male performance of 2006.

            Overall, Scorsese’s film is among his best – right up there with “Raging Bull” and “Taxi Driver,” but I will stop short of mentioning the Best Director Oscar. He was cheated out in the past few years for “Gangs of New York” and “The Aviator,” but to hope for a Scorsese win at the 2007 Oscars will almost be too heartbreaking if the outcome doesn’t rule in his favor. It’s best to forget about the Academy, who rarely rewards the right films or directors, and instead appreciate “The Departed” for what it is: the best film of the year.

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