The Departed (2006)

	Directed by: Martin Scorsese	COUNTRY USA GENRE Crime/Drama NORWEGIAN TITLE The Departed RUNNING TIME 151 minutes
	Produced by: Brad Grey Graham King Brad Pitt Martin Scorsese
	Written by (based on a screenplay by A. Mak & F. Chong): William Monahan

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Billy Costigan	Leonardo DiCaprio
Colin Sullivan	Matt Damon	½
Frank Costello	Jack Nicholson	½
Dignam	Mark Wahlberg
Oliver Queenan	Martin Sheen
Mr. French	Ray Winstone
Madolyn	Vera Farmiga	½
Brown	Anthony Anderson
Ellerby	Alec Baldwin	½
Cousin Sean	Kevin Corrigan

Review

There was a time when Martin Scorsese always seemed to be one step ahead. As if he was our informant in some of the roughest neighbourhoods in New York. These days, his contemporary films seem to be lagging two steps behind. The Departed is one such film - a tedious, repetitive and conventional gangster story, perfectly fitted into a long-overexposed genre that has exceeded its productive phase. Scorsese's direction is economical and tight but without flair. And the script, by William Monahan, is full of uppity, in-your-face dialogue between arrogant, more or less identical tough guys who deliver their lines at Gilmore Girls pace, and then solve any ensuing conflict by hitting each other. To its credit, The Departed is for long periods an effective suspense film, and it has some interesting characterological aspects – regarding all the major leads, but mostly the Nicholson/DiCaprio and DiCaprio/Farmiga relations. The performances are steadily fine, though even these stars can only do so much with characters that have no sense of self-reflection or personal happiness. Except for the Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg characters, nobody in The Departed has any fun. They simply drag us through a strenuous story that ends in the simplest, least subtle manner.