The Departed

PJ Neilan

The Departed is the third outing for the now-fearsome Martin Scorsese/Leonardo Di Caprio axis-of-celluloid-evil that has been pushing the Oscar ever-closer toward Martin’s mantelpiece.

The Departed is a remake of 2002’s Mou Gaan Dou (Internal Affairs) - a superior Japanese mob v cops effort that proved a huge hit in Japan and turned directors Siu Fai Mak and Wai Keung Lai into household names overnight.

The plot is simple, it’s a story woven between a mole (Matt Damon) in the police department and an undercover cop (DiCaprio) in the mob. Their objectives are the same: to find out who is the mole, and who is the cop.

Scorsese stays true to the premise and plotlines of the original and brings out fine performances from DiCaprio and Matt Damon in the lead roles.

Damon is the mole inside the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) and DiCaprio is the undercover cop who has infiltrated the south Boston mob.

Both are rising fast on their respective ladders, albeit on opposite sides, in Boston’s notorious ‘Southie’ district, famous for Irish gang violence.

They are both, however, hiding from past lives and both latch onto surrogate father figures to build new ones.

For Damon’s mole, it’s the devil-eyebrowed mob boss Jack Nicholson, while for DiCaprio it’s the ever-shrinking president of the USA, Martin Sheen.

The twist and turns in the plot are decent but couldn’t be described as gripping. The story is layered sufficiently to generate interest for the two leads, but anywhere else it is as two-dimensional as it comes. It’s a shame that the supporting roles are hampered by ridiculous accents and not an acting morsel to chew on.

Nicholson and Sheen have played these roles before. Many, many times before and remain on autopilot throughout. Mark Wahlberg’s violent ‘Sgt Dignam’, Ray Winsone’s (what is that accent?) ‘Frenchie’, Alec Baldwin’s ‘Cpt Ellerby’ and Vera Farmiga’s ‘Madolyn’ are so clichéd and two-dimensional that screenwriter William Monahan should hang his head in shame. Some of the dialogue is clumsy – most notably between Damon and Farmiga - and some of the scenes just don’t work, - pretty much all the violence. By the end, the audience were laughing at each addition to an already mighty body count.

There are two possible draws for The Departed, however, - the performances of the two lead actors and, put simply, Martin Scorsese’s name. The direction is typically Scorsese-esque combining swooping, lingering camera that dazzle with hooded, grizzled faces aplenty all accompanying a wailing soundtrack that, in itself, makes the film above the ordinary.

The performances of the two leads are good. However, Matt Damon’s occasional forced flashes of “smile” make him look like his head is constructed entirely of Lego – admittedly, it’s a small gripe.

DiCaprio’s performance is probably the only aspect of The Departed that lives up to such burdensome expectations, which is quite a compliment considering it’s veritable  a who’s who of modern American film-making.

The Departed won’t blow you away, but there are worse ways of spending a Sunday night.

 

The Departed (16) is on general release nationwide.

 

Directed by Martin Scorsese

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