'The Departed': Scorsese, Nicholson deliver
by KEN BARTOLOTTA Reporter

Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio lead an all-star cast in director Martin Scorsese's "The Departed."

You sift through the mediocrity of modern-day cinema waiting for a film like this, begging at the proverbial feet of big budget producers for a mere morsel of a good movie.

Well, beg no longer movie buffs, because the smoke has cleared and from the ashes and rubble of bad film after bad film arises "The Depar ted."

The film lives up to every bit of hype that a film made by Martin Scorsese and staring Jack Nicholson as Irish mob boss Frank Costello would warrant.

It's the type of film that grabs you from the very first credits, Nicholson's silhouette gliding across the screen, his devilish shadow delivering a tale of Irish plight that preps the audience for the gritty and violent ride that takes off the second his signature eyebrows and sinister grin creep out of the shadows.

There's no letting up in "The Departed," and every actor featured in the film comes together like cogs in a well-oiled machine. There's stellar performances from the other two main characters of the film, Matt Damon as the rat for the mob infiltrating the FBI, and his counterpart, his "Paradox" as Nicholson terms it, Leonardo DiCaprio working as an FBI informant penetrating Costello's outfit.

And that dichotomy is one of the best parts of the film, Damon's character effortlessly climbing through the ranks of the Boston Police Department despite or in spite of his unwavering ties to Costello.

And on the other end of the spectrum, DiCaprio's character struggling to shed his family's stigma of crime and degradation and seemingly still slugging it out in the grime and dirt of South Boston.

And then there's Nicholson. It's almost impossible not to draw correlations between Nicholson's Costello and Marlon Brando's career-reviving role as Don Vito Corleone in "The Godfather," but as Nicholson has been noted to say, all comparisons are odious because the only real link is that of genre. Where Corleone never wanted the life of crime, Nicholson revels in it. Where The Don was silent and reserved, Nicholson never shuts up.

But one similarity is obvious, and that's that domineering presence on screen - Nicholson's scenes demand that you notice him and you never forget whose running this thing.

Scorsese turns in his best project since "GoodFellas," but "The Departed" isn't to be viewed as a nice bookend to Scorsese's love affair with gangsters. His new film stands on its own as a masterpiece in almost every aspect, from the editing to the score, to that dark, sometimes unintentional humor that can always be found in a Scorsese vehicle.

In the end, "The Departed" jumps out at you because it twists and bends the rules of the traditional mob film. Instead of the well-dressed, slicked back feel of films like "The Godfather," "GoodFellas" or "Casino," it instead opts for the aforementioned grittiness and toughness that a movie set in South Boston would dictate. It's a difference as vast and wide as that between the Irish and the Italians.

This isn't a modern day take on the Greek drama and the tragedy of one gangster, but instead a film where everyone is doomed from the very beginning. Where as Frank Costello puts it, we're all on our way out, so "act accordingly boys."