by Rhian Hibner
Daily Lobo
Actors have this funny way of surprising everyone.
Tom Hanks went from comedy to being a serious actor with "Philadelphia." Bruce Willis showed his introspective side in "The Sixth Sense." It is apparently Leonardo DiCaprio's turn.
In "The Departed," DiCaprio plays Billy Costigan, a cop whose cover is so deep, only his handlers know that he is even a cop. He plays this part with a surprising amount of skill. Gone is the whiny kid from "Romeo + Juliet" and "Titanic." He measures up with the rest of the cast. In one scene, he even tells off mafia boss Frank Costello, played by Jack Nicholson, and still manages to remain believable.
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The story revolves around DiCaprio's character. His assignment is to find Costello's mole in the Massachusetts State Police by going into deep cover inside of Costello's gang. Circling around is a who's-who list of Hollywood actors. Martin Sheen, as Oliver Queenan, and Mark Wahlberg, as Queenan's assistant, Sgt. Dignam, are two of only three people who know of Costigan's assignment.
Opposite of DiCaprio in every way possible is Matt Damon. Damon delivers the slimiest performance of his entire career in his portrayal of the utterly corrupt detective Colin Sullivan. Sullivan's life is entwined with and mirrors Costigan's in every way. Sullivan is involved with a department psychologist named Madolyn, played by Vera Farmiga.
This is where the movie, despite the skill of the actors, begins to fall down. The movie is full of convoluted twists and turns, culminating in the most blatant occurrence of deus ex machina ever seen in a film with a budget this large.
Martin Scorsese has no excuse for ending the movie in such a contrived and nonsensical manner. It's not as if he was saddled with talentless hacks to fill his roles. It might have been better if "The Departed" didn't have quite so many A-list actors. They're just being wasted here. All things considered, Scorsese's announcement at the Rome Film Festival, saying that he was ready to retire from big-budget films, may have come just a bit too late.
That's the problem with "The Departed." It has all the earmarks of bad suspense. It has a level of graphic violence that can compare with last year's "Sin City," Frank Miller's celebration of brutality. At least in "Sin City" the violence fits the theme of the movie. While the theme of the traitor masquerading as the trusted right-hand man can be done, and done well, that genre already reached its peak with 1997's "Donnie Brasco."
Nothing in "The Departed" serves to set it apart from all the films that have come before it, except for one thing: all the performances in this film are excellent.
Unfortunately, the film itself is not.
"The Departed"
Rated: R
Grade: B
