The Departed (English, 2006)

Imagine for a moment that you are a director and you have a star cast of Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen.... Then you go ahead and make a movie about the police cracking down on organised crime. Well, you can do only two things. You can either be a run-of-the-mill director who keeps struggling with balancing so many greats and ends up making a movie where things keep on happening and characters keep on coming in and going out without too much sense. Or, you can be Martin Scorsese (you can't really be Martin Scorsese, very few people can match that level of filmmaking, but that's neither here nor there) and make The Departed.

The Departed is the story of 2 people - Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon). Both cops and both Mob. It is the story of Boston police department, specifically Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Seargent Dignan (Mark Wahlberg) of Special Investigation Unit supported by Captain Ellerby (Alec Baldwin), trying to get the better of the Mob head, Costello (Jack Nicholson). Costigan is the undercover cop who has infiltrates the Mob and rises fastly in Costello's trust. Sullivan is the criminal who gets recruited as a cop and is rising fast in the Special Investigation Unit. Police and Mob both realise that they have a mole in their midst. The movie is a gripping story of the double life the two men lead and their chess game of outwitting each other.

Amazing performances from Leonardo DiCaprio and Jack Nicholson. It was ten years ago that Jack Nicholson's As Good as it Gets had stolen the best actor award from Leonardo's Titanic. Now this movie is not on the soft, emotional side of life as those two were. In fact, The Departed is quite gritty and a bit gory, my wife averted her eyes from screen several times. But the performances are certainly Oscar winning, with Leonardo having a slight upper hand. Matt Damon is also brilliant and gives one of his all-time best performances. Ably supported by the rest of the cast, these three people keep you on the edge of your seat, guessing what will happen next and giving you a lot of those "I didn't understand what just happened, what does that mean?" and "Wow! That's clever. So this is what that meant" moments which make any intelligent thriller a thrill to watch.

The movie moves at a good pace, the plot keeps you engaged every moment. The dialogues are a bit rough, with swearing almost of the level of Scarface. A bit gory, as the movie has a lot of bloodshed and shooting in the head scenes. Violence is paramount, it is a movie about cops and Mob killing each other.

Recommendation - Don't go to the movie if you can't see blood. Don't go if violence on the screen puts you off. But if you don't go, you would have moved one of the best movies of the year.

Rating - ✔✔✔✔