PLOT: Two moles -- one within the Massachusetts State Police Department, the other within the Irish mob in Boston -- work against each other in this violent crime drama from Martin Scorsese. Jack Nicholson stars as the mob boss.
With a dream cast, master director and intriguing story brimming with violence and sex, The Departed really should be better than it is.
Think about it: Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin and Ray Winstone all co-star in a Martin Scorsese film about two moles working against each other as the Massachusetts State Police tries to bring down an unpredictably violent Irish mob boss in Boston.
Based on the 2002 Hong Kong crime thriller, Infernal Affairs, there are lots of plot twists and turns, interesting characterizations and a movie-stealing performance by Nicholson as the aforementioned mob kingpin, FrankCostello.
Yet The Departed drags on at two-and-a-half hours and DiCaprio and Damon, while capable enough in their roles, don't ever really rise to the level of Jack's scenery-chewing performance.
Wahlberg, on the other hand, has never been more in command on screen in his tough-talking, wise-cracking role as one of two police bosses who recruit DiCaprio's cadet from the wrong side of the tracks to go undercover and infiltrate Costello's organization.
The scene where Wahlberg (and a still vital Sheen) first approach DiCaprio to do their dirty work for them is among the best in the movie.
Baldwin's performance is also noteworthy.
Otherwise, Damon plays a "Southie" -- someone from South Boston -- who is adopted by Costello as a child and quickly and smoothly rises up through the ranks of the police department, all the while being the personal mole to Nicholson's character.
To complicate matters, both Damon and DiCaprio become involved with the same woman, a police psychiatrist (played by the sexless and wimpy Vera Farmiga), unbeknownst to each other.
Still, it's all that testosterone -- Irish, Italian and otherwise -- on screen that really gets the juices flowing here. One can only wonder just how great The Departed might have been had, say, Wahlberg been given one of the two mole roles.
Scorsese, who has tackled the subject of Irish street gangs before in 2002's Gangs Of New York, could have used more savvy editing to liven the pace.
The Departed, as the first-ever Nicholson-Scorsese collaboration, had so much going for it. Sadly, it never realizes its huge potential.
BOTTOM LINE: Jack Nicholson steals every scene he's in as a violent, sexually depraved Irish mob kingpin in Martin Scorsese's latest film that's overlong at two-and-a-half hours. Mark Wahlberg also delivers his best screen performance yet as a tough-talking police detective.
(This film is rated 18-A)
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