Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
There are very few remakes that get me really excited from the moment they’re announced, but this is one of them. It just seems like a perfect match of material and director, and the cast they’ve put together is incredible. This is the first script review we’ve had for the piece, and it’s got me interested enough that I’m going to have to track it down for m’self. Check this out:
Hey Harry, just got the script for The Departed by William Monaham (based on Hong Kong’s highest grosser of 2002, Infernal Affairs) and thought you might like a bit of review and a quick synopsis.
Executive producers are Roy Lee and Doug Davison. Jennifer Aniston, Brad Grey, Brad Pitt and Martin Scorsese are producers for Warner Bros./ Miramax. Martin Scorsese will direct.
The cast is loaded. Leonardo DiCaprio is set to play Billy, Matt Damon as Colin, and Jack Nicholson is signed for Costello.
I should start off by saying that I did not see Infernal Affairs, though I know the reviews were quite good. I’m judging the script as is.
Spoilers follow, though I’ll try not to reveal the twists towards the end.
The script opens thirty some-odd years ago. We get a bit of a back story of the three main players, Costello, Billy and Colin. Costello is in his prime. He runs his area of Boston--everyone fears him. You see a 14-year-old Colin watch as Costello comes into a grocery store (a front for a bookie operation) to pick up his back end. Costello grabs a bunch of things off the shelf and drops them into a bag for Colin. You get the sense that Colin looks up to him. At the same time Costello’s not your classic one-dimensional gangster--this guy’s smart and affable. He demands respect. Next you get Billy’s run-in with Costello. Billy’s father is an honest man, working baggage down at the airport. He refuses to work for Costello. Billy watches it all unfold. The last scene from the past is Costello executing a man down by the shore. Cut to present day. We get a quick look at Colin’s and Billy’s paths to law-enforcement. Both are in state police. Immediately we learn of a relationship between Colin and Costello, as Costello watches him graduate the academy behind the wheel of an Oldsmobile. Next we see Colin, who has already passed the detective exam, ushered into the Organized Crime Unit by Captain Queenan and Dignan (two of my favorite characters). He’s got the perfect position for a mole. Next is Billy’s interview with the same to men. It goes a bit differently. The two grill him, picking up on family connections to the mob, anger issues, etc. Finally, they assign him as an undercover agent--a position that only the two of them will know exist. They need to bring Costello down, and they’re certain there’s a mole within OCU.
The mid-section of the movie plays out reasonably predictable, much like Donnie Brasco. Billy gets Costello to trust him, not by being a usual grunt, but by being intelligent and fiercely violent. DiCaprio is going to get some brutal scenes in this movie. He’s written as a fighter, and in one scene, as he beats the living crap out of two gangsters, he actually breaks his hand as he snaps one of their jaws.
Colin on the other hand works his way up the totem pole quickly, finally landing head of Internal Affairs over OCU. He’s basically promoted to find himself.
For Costello it’s different. He knows there’s a mole within his organization, and he wants Colin to find out who it is. He’s supporting Colin’s lifestyle, and you get the hint that Colin’s where he is because, and only because of Costello (that’s not to say he isn’t intelligent, he is). There’s also an unfortunate subplot having to do with stolen micro-chips which Costello’s crew jacked, which doesn’t really go anywhere, and truthfully, doesn’t seem to work at all.
One of my favorite things about the script is that Colin and Billy never meet each other, let alone have a scene with each other until the last 20-some-odd minutes of the screenplay. I have a feeling it’s going to be strange, yet oddly compelling to not see the two stars in the same scene, yet knowing that their jobs are to find each other (one would lead to an arrest, the other, a death).
Another interesting aspect of the screenplay is Madeleine, OCU’s shrink and Colin’s fiancée (they meet each other early on in the script). Other than Queenan, Dignan and Costello she’s the only character who directly connects Billy to Colin, and it’s during her sessions with the two that we learn how similar their personalities are (Colin and Billy, respectively). Other than their upbringings, both are intelligent, street smart, and in way over their heads. On another note, she also prescribes Valium to Billy who’s having more and more frequent bursts of panic-attacks while on the job.
I have no doubt Nicholson will be fantastic as Costello. What I think he’ll bring to the character is a sense of likeability that many classic mobsters often lack. Yes, Costello’s murderer, but he’s also charismatic as hell. Nicholson’s a great choice.
I went into this script already knowing who was cast as Billy and who was cast as Colin, and I came out of it wanting their roles reversed. Personally I’ve had enough of DiCaprio cast as the “good-guy.” I would have loved to see him as the sleazy Colin, constantly trying to wiggle his way out one situation, climbing higher and higher through the ranks of the OCU. With Damon it’s the exact opposite. I loved him in the Bourne Supremacy, and some his fight scenes in that film were brutally fantastic. It’s he who I see shooting out a guy’s knee, not DiCaprio. And yes, we’ve also already seen Damon as the weasel (Talented Mr. Ripley, mumbling Linus in Ocean’s 11, 12). Obviously the film’s already been cast, but personally I’m starting to like hard-assed Damon over pussy Damon.
The script on its own reads well, with strong, grounded dialogue. On occasion it runs into stilted patches (what scripts don’t?) but I have no doubt the actors will be able to work around them. My only qualm is when the script sacrifices areas of character development for a plot-twist. Personally, I’d take a movie like Mystic River which relies mostly on character development instead of movie which relies on kitschy plot-devices any day of the week. Another frustrating aspect is that the script manages to kill-off almost every character (won’t say who) which leaves little emotional resonance with the reader (and I assume it will be the same with the viewer as well). I’d rather leave some of the characters alive, and let the reader find out how they pick up the pieces, or at least imagine how they would, then leave us with a dead-end.
Overall the script is strong, with the exception of the unnecessary micro-chip subplot, and I have no doubt it will translate to screen honorably with Scorsese at the helm. The film continues Scorsese’s love-affair with DiCaprio as the unheralded hero, and since the script reads fast, I assume he might be able to keep this one under three hours. I’m not sure if it’s Oscar-caliber (if that is indeed what Miramax’s looking for), but it’ll be a great, entertaining film no matter what.
Hope you’re feeling better Harry and if you use this,
PVIII
Thanks, man. I’m sure Harry appreciates the continued well wishes from everybody, and I appreciate the review.
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