The Departed Review

The Departed is a brilliant and cleverly done crime drama. The basic gist of the film is that the police and a criminal organization both have implanted moles on each other’s sides. The criminals use Matt Damon to get info about what the police are planning while the police use DiCaprio to figure out what the criminals are planning. What the movie does amazingly is keep a steady pace. It’s a 2 hour and 30 minute runtime but it didn’t feel like that at all because each scene is quickly edited and gripping with intensity. The performances were top notch across the board and the whole time you are basically fearing for DiCaprio’s life in the case of getting found out by Jack Nicholson, who is probably one of the best characters of the story. Nicholson is a great villain here and not only is he intimidating but also smart, leading to some of those really cool “I’m always one step ahead” moments.

People’s deaths are even handled in the most surprising ways. It’s never really handled cinematically. It’s always brutal and instant leading to some really surprising turns in the narrative. I did the think the whole love interest with Matt Damon was a weaker part of the story, which may have been because they added that as a new story thread to this film (it being a remake of an older Asian movie called “Infernal Affairs”). But otherwise “The Departed” is a great watch and one that you surely should go back to if you missed it back in 2006 like I did.