Film Review: The Departed

Director: Martin Scorcese

Any Scorcese film in the last few years is awaited with baited breath by movie fans and critics alike, after successes with Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas to name just three it's fair to say there is a lot of expectation. In 2006, The Departed was released with an ensemble cast and Scorcese in the directing chair meant that expectations were sky high but they still managed to pull off a great film. The film is based on 2002 Hong Kong film Internal Affairs and won 4 Oscars.

Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) and Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon)

The film is based around the Irish mob in South Boston where Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson, character loosely based on Whitey Bulger) is the top man. Whilst in the police force there is Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is made to go undercover within Costello's mob due to his Irish background whilst Frank Costello has already placed Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) has his insider within the police force. There is then a lot of double crossing and near misses as both sides realise there is a rat inside their organisations and they battle to find out who it is.

Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) with Frank

There are some excellent performances which mainly come from the supporting cast, especially Vera Farmiga and Alec Baldwin, whilst Ray Winstone plays an Irish hoodlum with his usual cockney accent in the background (I'm sure he'll be more at home in The Sweeney). The main actors all perform aptly without any of them really impressing, maybe because I was expecting more effort and work into Irish-American accents.
There are some incredibly tense moments that are superbly played out as the mob and the police get closer to finding out who the informers are on each side. It asks some interesting questions of identity and what exactly is right and wrong as neither Sullivan or Costigan are completely guilty or innocent in the acts they take as part of their roles spying inside the police force and mob respectively. The ending is excellent as the whole story unravels but the film is too long for the premise at times as they try to combine three Internal Affairs movies into one long epic.

3/4 thrilling and tense mob flick but doesn't have the weight for lengthy run time