Movie Review - The Departed

Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson and Vera Farmiga

Remake of a successful Hong Kong thriller by the name Infernal Affairs, The Departed is a beautiful movie which revolves around the lives of two moles. One is an undercover cop who has joined the thugs; while the other is a cop, but works for the gangsters. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the role of the undercover cop, Billy Costigan. Matt Damon is the cop, Colin Sullivan and Jack Nicholson is the dreaded mob leader Frank Costello.

As a child, Sullivan comes under the patronage of Costello since Costello knew his grandparents. Costello supports Sullivan and due to his clean parentage, Sullivan is successful in entering the Massachusetts State Police department. On the other hand, Costigan, who is from the family of thugs find it extremely difficult to get into the police department.

Sullivan easily wins the confidence of his superiors and is given higher responsibilities. He is in constant touch with Costello, warning him of every move made by the Police department, enabling Costello to outsmart the policemen.

The police department headed by Captain Queenan and the foul mouthed Sergeant Dignam, work out a plan to plant a mole within Costello’s men. Their obvious choice is Costigan due to links with the mob. The convince Costigan, and as part of the plan, gets him fired from the Police. They also get him convicted in a false charge and make him serve a few months in jail.

After getting released from prison, joins his cousin in drug running. He succeeds in getting Costello’s attention and joins Costello’s gang after a painful verification of his credentials. Sullivan also goes up the ladder, becoming the in-charge of a major anti-mob operation.

The situation goes out of hands, when both the police as well as Costello gets to know that they have a mole amongst them. Costello goes all out to find the mole in his gang, he enlists the help of Sullivan, but Sullivan is unsuccessful in getting the information as only Queenan and Dignam have the information of the mole within Costello’s gang.

This lays the foundation for the dramatic end which follows.

The romantic angle to the story is given by the police department physiatrist Madolyn Madden played by Vera Farmiga. She is initially attracted to Sullivan, but later when Costigan approaches her due to the highly stressed life he lives as an undercover cop, she falls for him too; leading to a love triangle.

The screenplay and direction is amazing, capturing the attention of the audience all the time. The performances by the lead cast are also superb, ably supported by the supporting cast. A few negative things would be the amount the violence and the usage of abusive language. The F word has been used 237 times.

Overall a very good movie, and its definitely worth every penny which you spend on it.

Sources: Wikipedia, IMDB