Review of The Departed (2006)

 SPOILER ALERT: PLOT POINTS DISCUSSED

Hello all! Today I will be reviewing "The Departed," directed by Martin Scorcese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, and Matt Damon. This is a fairly big-budget, super popular movie, and I'm sure most of you already have an opinion on the film, but I hadn't seen it at all until the other night, so it's new to me!

"The Departed" is about policeman Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) who's trying desperately to prove himself worthy of being an asset to his Massachusetts state police department. He does this by taking a dangerous undercover assignment to take down the ever-growing and powerful Irish mob and its leader, Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Along the way, he finds that his assignment isn't as clear as he thought, and the line between good and evil isn't black and white. The hunter becomes the hunted, and it's up to Costigan to keep his cool and finish the task he was sent out to do.

Pros:

1. The biggest pro is the fact that it's not your typical cop drama. There's an added character in the story that makes the entire movie; his name is Collin Sullivan, played by Matt Damon. Sullivan grew up with Costello as a father figure, and is a part of Costello's inner circle. Now, I'm not 100% on this, but I believe that Sullivan joins the police force to lead police away from Costello's scent, so to speak. That's what makes this movie for me; the fact that the police has an undercover cop in the mob, and the mob has an undercover agent in the police. It makes for a pretty interesting story development.

2. Martin Scorcese is a genius when it comes to casting a movie. Not only are Matt Damon, Leo DiCaprio, and Jack Nicholson perfect in their roles, but there are so many other honorable mentions that it's crazy; Martin Sheen as the local police chief, Mark Wahlberg as the tough-as-nails, no bull cuss cop who doesn't trust anyone but Martin Sheen, and Alec Baldwin as Matt Damon's boss, another higher up in the police rank. Every character, no matter how small, delivered an Oscar-worthy performance. No one felt like a side character because everyone was doing their best main-character performance on screen.

3. Throughout the whole movie, neither Matt Damon nor Leonardo DiCaprio change their stance or feelings on the side that they're really on. Even though they play both sides of the field, so to speak, they remain loyal to their original cause. However, the one character who was supposed to be on the true blue, law enforcement side, was the one character that commits a crime for his own benefit. Mark Wahlberg's character finds out that Matt Damon is the informant for the mob, and he shoots and kills him at the very end. The fact that the audience is exposed to all of the "twists" from the very beginning makes you think that there couldn't possibly be a twist ending; but they'd be WRONG AS CRAP. Because I did NOT see that coming.

Cons:

1. Now, the only thing I can say that kind of ruined the movie for me was everyone's accent. For people like Jack Nicholson and Leonardo DiCaprio, I guess I can forgive them because they're not actually from Boston, and Boston accents are pretty hard to get down pat. But I cannot forgive Matt Damon, who is actually FROM Boston and still sounded like he was trying to pull off a poor Boston accent. The only person that sounded genuine was Mark Wahlberg, and he had all but 10 lines in the film.

Other than that, though, I'd say the movie was definitely fantastic. I mean, it won Best Picture at the Academy Awards, so I guess it did at least 3 things right. I give it 4 stars! 4 for you, Martin Scorcese! You've done it again.