Dangerous Game

Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, a remake of the hit 2002 Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, is a pot boiler of a film featuring an all-star cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson (in full scenery-chewing mode), and Mark Wahlberg.

Set in South Boston, where the police are waging war on organized crime, the film follows the travails of a joint FBI-Massachusetts State Police task force that is hunting down Irish mobster Frank Costello (Nicholson) with the help of deep undercover cop Billy Costigan (DiCaprio).

In the first of an interesting series of twists and turns, Costello has golden-boy detective Colin Sullivan (Damon) inside the police department as a way to ensure that his operation always stays a step ahead of the law.

Both Costigan and Sullivan are tasked with sabotaging the sides they’ve infiltrated, and, obviously, it soon becomes apparent to their respective (and oblivious) camps that something is wrong.

This is when the film is at its best – when the two rats are desperately trying to smoke each other out. Alas, this is easier said than done, and as the stakes (and body count) get higher, so does the urgency of the thrills.

In the end…well, you’ll just have to watch and see because that’s the payoff for you as a viewer. I could not have seen all the twists and turns that were coming had I been standing on top of the highest mountain on the clearest of days.

The Departed is, quite possibly, one of the best films I’ve seen so far in 2006. (I know such a generous statement is going to come back and hunt me later this year, all things considered, but so be it – it was that good.)

The acting is fantastic (if Meryl Streep is to get a nomination for her turn in The Devil Wears Prada, then Nicholson had better get one, too), the script is taut with anticipation, and Scorsese’s direction is confident and effective (the climatic shoot-out is exhilarating – it rivals the one in Heat, IMHO).

My Rating ***1/2

Photo: Warner Bros.