The Departed

This film it a true crime drama. Its production and extra actors supporting roles were wonderfully assembled. The end evoked feelings I felt when I first finished watching the Godfather. It was simply incredible -- a must see. Now Ggo watch it!!

Simply put The Departed is the best movie I have seen this year bar none. The film's premise is based on the story that the mob have a man on in the inside of the Boston Police Department's special unit and that the cops have a man on the inside of Jack Nicholson's Irish mafia.

The film begins with Jack Nicholson's character, Frank Costello, showing just why he is the Mr Big of Boston. Nicholson may not have top billing, but he is the undoubted star of this show with a menacing, eccentric and compelling turn as the wonderfully devilsh Costello. Jack must have the best supporting actor nomination, if not the statuette, in the bag as he owns every scene he is in during this film. Costello, has been calling the shots for some time in this neighbourhood and took Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) under his wing from an early age. We fast forward a few years and Sullivan has just graduated from the police training academy and is rapidly progressing as a high flyer within the force. This is good news for Costello as Sullivan is his man on the inside, a man who joined the cops in the first place as a plant to get information for Costello.

Luckily for Boston's finest, they have intentions of placing an insider in Costello's gang as well. The rookie with this uneviable task is Billy Costigan (Leo Di Caprio). Costigan is pulled into Captain Queenan's (Martin Sheen) office for a grilling about his family's murky criminal past. After both Queenan and his right hand man Dignan (the on form Mark Whalberg) are satisified that Costigan isn't a chip off the old block, they decide he's the perfect man to under cover in Costello's hoods. Costigan is promptly ejected from the Boston PD on a fabricated assault charge and begins his arduous task of trying to infiltrate the Irish mobsters.

After gaining the attention and then the trust of Costello, it eventually becomes apparent to the police and the villains that both sides have a traitor in their midst. The race is then on for both sides to try and nail 'the rat' while Costello carrys on with running the underwold and the police carry on with trying to take down the mob boss and his cronies.

It's a great film with some brilliant action, violence and suspense filled scenes that never wastes a frame or skips a beat. As well as the main actors, the supporting players all deliver in spades with Martin Sheen, Mark Whalberg and Alec Baldwin all at the top of their game as cops and Ray Winstone producing the goods as Costello's chief henchman and enforcer.

The only blemish on this Scorsese masterpiece is a predictable and entirely unneccessary love triangle involving Costigan, Sullivan and Sullivan's psychologist girlfriend Madolyn (Vera Farmiga). The only purpose this seems to serve is to give the ladies in the audience a romantic subplot and also conjour up a fairly contrived build-up to the final act.

All in all I'm willing to still rate this film at a ten though because the acting is immense, the plot dazzling and the film simply memorable and the best I have seen in 2006 thus far.