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It's a tricky business adapting a foreign movie for
an American audience. Martin Scorsese's "The Departed" captures
all the best elements of the original film "Infernal Affairs"
and works traditional Scorsese themes and material into
the film making it very much his own and every bit the equal
to the Chinese film. Featuring outstanding performances
all around perhaps this film will finally earn Scorsese
the Oscar for Best Director that he deserved for "Raging
Bull" over twenty years ago. ***
Two state trooper academy graduates one an undercover
officer named Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) and a mole
in the department Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) working for
crime lord Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson)have opposite
goals. Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Sgt. Dignam (Mark
Wahlberg) charge Costigan with gathering as much dirt as
possible on Sullivan so they can finally take him out. They
work up a false history for Costigan which includes a brief
stint in prison to create credibility. By comparison Sullivan
is a boy scout who rises to the top of his department rapidly
working for Ellerby (Alec Baldwin)in a rival department.
Both are charged with ferriting out the mole in their respective
organizations and both are romancing the same woman (Vera
Farmiga) without ever meeting. It's a brilliantly constructed
game of cat and mouse with each playing the respective role
at one point in time. Filled with brilliant visuals that
echo the themes of the script adapted by William Monahan
("Kingdom of Heaven")from the script by Siu Fai Mak and
Felix Chong the film manages to stay true to the elements
that worked best in the Chinese film while incorporating
elements unique to "The Departed". DiCaprio and Damon give
complex, compelling performances as opposite sides of the
same coin. Nicholson plays Costello with psychopathic intensity
at times without going too far over the top. The entire
cast gives stellar performances but I'd like to note tree
actors in particularly who do the most with their limited
roles--Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen (who replaced two other
actors that had to drop out--Robert DeNiro and Gerard McSorley)and
Mark Whalberg all three give intense performances and inhabit
their characters fully. Vera Farmiga handles her role of
Madolyn equalling the big boys despite the fact that her
character isn't given as much screen time by comparison.
Special note should also be made of actor Ray Winstone ("The
Proposition", "King Arthur" and "Cold Mountain") who gives
a nice edgy performance as Mr. French. ---
Image & Sound:
"The Departed" looks marvelous in its presentation
here. The film is true to the original theatrical version
of the film in terms of color, clarity and sharpness. There
is noticeable grain which adds to the grittiness of the
film and was evident in the original theatrical version
of the film as well. The 5.1 mix makes very nice use of
the format. ---
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