To take down South Boston's Irish Mafia, the police send in one of their own to infiltrate the underworld, not realizing the syndicate has done likewise in Martin Scorsese's multiple Oscar-winning...
WHAT I LIKED: Like many Scorsese movies of this era, 'Infernal Affairs,' remake 'The Departed,' is delivered almost like one giant montage with plenty of quick cuts, short scenes and jukebox songs. Also like most Scorsese movies, the central characters are caught in an increasingly difficult conflict between their responsibilities (violence, commitments and crimes) and their conscience. But what makes this film perhaps his most compelling is the fact that those responsibilities are largely imposed by others rather than themselves.
The first character we're introduced to is mob man Colin (Matt Damon) who infiltrates the Police because he's been doctored since childhood by crime lord Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson), and he's forced to take down allies and play an increasingly difficult part in order to be a convincing cop whilst throwing them off Frank's capture. The other character is Policeman Billy (Leonardo DiCaprio) who infiltrates the mob because his bosses (Michael Sheen) deem him unfit for a normal job and cut him off, and he's thus forced to commit and witness heinous crimes and leave all attachments to his real life behind.
Rather brilliantly, that means their respective masters are both presented as morally corrupt (Scorsese clearly doesn't want us to revel in the lure of this gangster world with a thoroughly evil Nicholson at the helm), so the pair's will to live up to those father-figures, and their struggle to play their parts, makes for some highly engaging internal dilemmas which are sold extremely well by Damon and, in particular, DiCaprio, who bring that to life even when their characters spend a lot of their time playing roles.
But the film is not only so engaging because the central pair are pushed into difficult conflicts within themselves; it's also because they're in a constant, invisible and inevitable conflict to uncover one another and succeed in their opposing missions. Even though they end up seeing the same woman (Vera Farminga), they have no idea who the other is for the majority of the movie, and the intricate plotting and their many anxsty phone calls will have the audience on the edge of their seats longing to find out what happens. That's another thing that sets this apart from the rest of Scorsese's filmography, as his sudden interest in plot reveals represents an unusual discipline which in turn allows his whitty, dazzling style to shine most brightly. There are no waste scenes here to indulge in excessive world-building; just two and a half hours of smart plotting which tests characters and brings them to incredibly engaging personal and interpersonal conflicts.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: There really is nothing wrong with this film.
VERDICT: A crisis of conscience and conflict caused by the manipulation of others; 'The Departed,' is Scorsese at his most disciplined and direct, and the result is one of his best films of all.
