MOVIES
THE DEPARTED
Starring Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio. Written by William Monahan. Directed by Martin Scorsese. (18A) 154 min. Opens Oct 6.
Martin Scorsese's muscular remake of the Hong Kong cop thriller Infernal Affairs, The Departed hits the ground running just as hard as you hoped. Over archival footage of rioting Bostonians comes a few brief maxims by one Frank Costello. Costello may be an Irish-American Boston mob boss (inspired in part by the Italian-American New York Mafioso who shares his name), but Jack Nicholson plays him like he's a Roman emperor who's so debauched, he'd set fire to his own palace just for fun. "I don't wanna be a product of my environment," Frank growls. "I want my environment to be a product of me." The message is clear even before we see Nicholson dispensing his enemies with shots to the head or hurling handfuls of cocaine at his hussies. This is Frank's world -- everybody else was born to suffer.
Then comes a rapid-fire montage comprised of ruthlessly compact bits of backstory, narrative fragments and character intros, all of it blasting off the screen like a spray of bullets. The choice of music -- The Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter," also heard in Goodfellas and Casino -- confirms this is Scorsese's world, too. (That said, you have to ask where he'd be without his long-time editor, Thelma Schoonmaker.) These moments are delivered with so much brio, so much intelligence and so much goddamn machismo, Scorsese fans will want to weep with joy. And we haven't even gotten to the opening titles yet.
Simultaneously recasting Infernal Affairs as a cop thriller, a romantic melodrama and a cynical meditation on power, lies and manhood, Scorsese and screenwriter William Monahan retain most of the original's flash and ingenuity while extending its reach. The whole cast rises to the occasion. Matt Damon plays Colin Sullivan, a Costello soldier who becomes the mobster's inside man in the Boston State Police. Leonardo DiCaprio is Billy Costigan, the fellow cadet who becomes Colin's counterpart in Costello's circle after he goes undercover. Though both are tormented by the lies they have to tell every second of the day, the ambitious Sullivan clearly has a taste for the straight life, which includes a romance with a police psychiatrist (Vera Farmiga). As Costello and his nemeses on the police force -- played by Martin Sheen and Mark Wahlberg, whose good-cop/Southie-asshole-cop routine is another of The Departed's highlights -- try to root out each other's rat with increasing desperation, the doppelgangers head for a collision.
Considering how much urgency all of Schoonmaker's aggressive cross-cutting gives the film, I can't figure out how The Departed got to be 154 minutes long. Scorsese's latest may have a far greater sense of momentum than The Aviator and Gangs of New York but it's hardly fat-free. Likewise, the second act is nearly as Byzantine as it was in the Hong Kong original. But the final hour crackles with intensity -- really, The Departed had me from the moment DiCaprio cracks a guy's head open with a coat stand. Scorsese's mastery of this cinematic environment generates a mighty awe and, what with all the bloodshed Frank's terrible presence demands, no little dread.
THE DEPARTED
Starring Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio. Written by William Monahan. Directed by Martin Scorsese. (18A) 154 min. Opens Oct 6.
Martin Scorsese's muscular remake of the Hong Kong cop thriller Infernal Affairs, The Departed hits the ground running just as hard as you hoped. Over archival footage of rioting Bostonians comes a few brief maxims by one Frank Costello. Costello may be an Irish-American Boston mob boss (inspired in part by the Italian-American New York Mafioso who shares his name), but Jack Nicholson plays him like he's a Roman emperor who's so debauched, he'd set fire to his own palace just for fun. "I don't wanna be a product of my environment," Frank growls. "I want my environment to be a product of me." The message is clear even before we see Nicholson dispensing his enemies with shots to the head or hurling handfuls of cocaine at his hussies. This is Frank's world -- everybody else was born to suffer.
Then comes a rapid-fire montage comprised of ruthlessly compact bits of backstory, narrative fragments and character intros, all of it blasting off the screen like a spray of bullets. The choice of music -- The Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter," also heard in Goodfellas and Casino -- confirms this is Scorsese's world, too. (That said, you have to ask where he'd be without his long-time editor, Thelma Schoonmaker.) These moments are delivered with so much brio, so much intelligence and so much goddamn machismo, Scorsese fans will want to weep with joy. And we haven't even gotten to the opening titles yet.
Simultaneously recasting Infernal Affairs as a cop thriller, a romantic melodrama and a cynical meditation on power, lies and manhood, Scorsese and screenwriter William Monahan retain most of the original's flash and ingenuity while extending its reach. The whole cast rises to the occasion. Matt Damon plays Colin Sullivan, a Costello soldier who becomes the mobster's inside man in the Boston State Police. Leonardo DiCaprio is Billy Costigan, the fellow cadet who becomes Colin's counterpart in Costello's circle after he goes undercover. Though both are tormented by the lies they have to tell every second of the day, the ambitious Sullivan clearly has a taste for the straight life, which includes a romance with a police psychiatrist (Vera Farmiga). As Costello and his nemeses on the police force -- played by Martin Sheen and Mark Wahlberg, whose good-cop/Southie-asshole-cop routine is another of The Departed's highlights -- try to root out each other's rat with increasing desperation, the doppelgangers head for a collision.
Considering how much urgency all of Schoonmaker's aggressive cross-cutting gives the film, I can't figure out how The Departed got to be 154 minutes long. Scorsese's latest may have a far greater sense of momentum than The Aviator and Gangs of New York but it's hardly fat-free. Likewise, the second act is nearly as Byzantine as it was in the Hong Kong original. But the final hour crackles with intensity -- really, The Departed had me from the moment DiCaprio cracks a guy's head open with a coat stand. Scorsese's mastery of this cinematic environment generates a mighty awe and, what with all the bloodshed Frank's terrible presence demands, no little dread.
posted by D @ 6:29 AM
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