Moriarty Welcomes THE DEPARTED’s Arrival!!

Hey, everyone. “Moriarty” here with some Rumblings From The Lab... D’ya ever notice how sometimes the critical community starts to sound like a broken record on certain films? Right now, you can read around 5,000 reviews online that all say, with varying thickets of verbiage, that is sure is nice to have Martin Scorsese back in the crime genre where he belongs. While I’m sure he appreciates the enthusiasm of the reviewers, it’s got to sting a little. I haven’t been crazy about some of his recent films. GANGS OF NEW YORK in particular struck me as a movie that seemed to have too much on its mind, including awards. THE AVIATOR is a beautifully-crafted film, but it’s a biopic, and I always feel with biopics like there’s a cookie-cutter shape to even the best of them. With THE DEPARTED, Scorsese is working from a screenplay by William Monahan, adapted from a translation of the script for INFERNAL AFFAIRS. Can we go ahead and get all the IA stuff out of the way quickly? Yep, I like the original. I like the sequel to the original even more. I think they are damn fine HK films, although not the genre-defining masterworks that some people seem to think they are. Monahan’s adaptation is both faithful and radical, and there’s no question that he’s written his own film. THE DEPARTED is fall-down funny in places, with some of the best snarling tough-guy dialogue since James Foley’s film version of GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS. Monahan’s script takes full advantage of the Boston location that is just one of the things that makes this a very different film from the Scorsese crime movies of old. People who tell you he’s gone backwards to what he’s done before aren’t paying attention. Scorsese intentionally didn’t make an Italian mob movie. This is not the world he grew up around. As Jack Nicholson’s character, Frank Costello, explains during the opening montage of Boston in the ‘70s, Boston belongs to the Irish. “Forty years after we couldn’t find work, we had the White House, may he rest in peace.” He talks about taking whatever it is you want, by whatever force you have to, and that philosophy colors the whole film. Jack’s first line is one of the film’s juciest, a low growl over news footage of violence. “I don’t want to be a product of my environment; I want my environment to be a product of me.” Watching him live by those words is mesmerizing, and I have to give Scorsese credit... he reigns Nicholson in to remarkable effect in this film. There are very few moments where crazy Jack comes out to gnaw on the scenery, and the moments where it does happen, one could argue that it makes perfect sense for Costello to be acting that way. Jack fits in this world. He doesn’t overpower it as he does in so many lesser films. Wisely, Scorsese and Monahan do not allow him to be the film’s anchor. The emphasis is placed squarely on the two leads, Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon). No matter what you think of some of their other highly-hyped work, these are talented actors, perhaps the most talented of their generation, and watching them spar for a whole film is electrifying. Even before they cross paths, they’re sending out sparks at each other. Sullivan’s a neighborhood boy who grew up in Costello’s shadow, admiring the great man. Costigan’s the kid who got out, who is smart enough to build a life away from the old neighborhood. They’re both Southies, but the difference is that Sullivan buys into that, allows it to define him, while Costigan doesn’t. The way Scorsese leads you into the film is a dizzying display of technique, and of course his old collaborators Michael Balhaus (whose cinematography here is stylish and sharp, but never overly-slick) and Thelma Schoonmaker (the editor who has defined the rhythm of his films for a quarter-century now) both bring their A-game to the film. You are assaulted with information as the film opens. We see Sullivan rise through the ranks of the state police, an ambitious young man who is assigned to plain clothes right out of training. He eventually ends up with one of the best assignments in the city, working for the team that is tasked with bringing down Costello. Sullivan works both sides of the fence, carefully climbing the ladder inside the department while also feeding information to Costello and keeping him out of harm’s way. As we see Sullivan take shape, we also see Costigan, just behind Sullivan in training, an angry young man with obvious potential. His intensity catches the attention of Capt. Queenan (Martin Sheen) and his second-in-comman Sgt. Dignam (Mark Wahlberg), who approach him with one hell of an assignment. Costigan agrees to it, agrees to let them fire him from the force, charge him with a crime, convict him and send him to jail. He allows them to tear down everything he’s worked for with the idea that when he gets out, he can work his way towards Costello, can work to infiltrate his crew. No one except Queenan and Dignam will know Costigan’s name or face. No one will even know there’s an undercover on the scene. That’s the plan. That’s the life Costigan signs up for. He agrees, and as the Dropkick Murphys suddenly drop into the soundtrack, cranked past the point of pain, the title finally comes up. THE DEPARTED. It’s all laid out for you by that point. You know who the players are. You know why they’re in it. And all that’s left is two hours or so of pure pleasure. The reason you’re seeing such effusive praise for this one is simple. The film entertains. So often, critics fall over themselves to praise a film because it makes them feel smart, or because it makes them feel like they know something that “the audience” doesn’t, or because it just plain panders to them. With THE DEPARTED, the reactions you’re seeing are because the film works overtime to entertain. This is about as far from an “art” film as you can get. This is a big slice of mainstream Hollywood fare. The original script for INFERNAL AFFAIRS by Alan Mak and Felix Chong is a fiendishly clever bit of business, and this film uses all the best structural tricks and turns. Scorsese must have recognized just how well-built the script was, allowing him to focus all of his energy on giving the actors room to play. He shoots the hell out of this film, but it’s a lesson to hyperactive camera-fetishists like Bay or Tony Scott, because the style never overwhelms. Scorsese knows exactly how to use his camera to draw you into a moment, never smothering the action beneath some clever crane move just for the sake of it. This is precise filmmaking, the sort of thing that only someone of his skill and experience could make look this easy. It’s been said that on the set of THE GODFATHER, there was a sense among the younger actors that they all wanted to be the one who could “beat” Marlon Brando in a scene. Cazale, Duvall, Pacino, Caan... they all went after Brando, did their best to steal moments from him. And the result is a movie where everyone’s doing their best work. THE DEPARTED is that same sort of thing. DiCaprio and Damon are obviously having a blast with Nicholson, and watching them deal with him in some of the movie’s crazier moments is half the fun. Alec Baldwin is doing the sort of work he does best, the short supporting role where he gets to come in, kill, and get out. Mark Wahlberg, so good in I HEART HUCKABEES, continues to refine his persona as this crazy bulldog motherfucker to outstanding effect. Martin Sheen’s good, Ray Winstone’s got real weight as Mr. French, Costello’s second-in-command, and David O’Hara (one of those guys who should be better known than he is) is creepy as shit as Fitzy, another one of Costello’s boys. Anthony Anderson must be thanking God that THE SHIELD came along for him, because I’ll bet money that’s what got him the meeting for this. He’s only in a few scenes, but imagine that... Anthony Anderson has played scenes with Damon and DiCaprio with Scorsese directing. Well played, sir. If anyone’s going to get some traction coming out of this film, it’ll be Vera Farmiga, who got all sorts of attention for her work in 2004’s DOWN TO THE BONE. She plays Madolyn, a psychiatrist who works with men on probation as well as cops after they’ve had to use their weapons. She ends up torn between Costigan and Sullivan, never realizing the game the two men are engaged in, neither of them realizing that they’ve got something so important in common. It’s a reeeeeeeeeally convenient story device, but she manages to make Madolyn seem real, fleshed-out, a woman worth paying attention to. She’s no angel, and she is drawn to the damaged parts in these men, convinced that her baggage and their baggage might all somehow balance out. Her character’s interesting enough that I would have enjoyed a film just about her, about living in that world and trying to stay above it. She’s not just “the girl,” and that’s due in large part to what she brings to the table as an actress, since some women might not have been able to make anything from the role. I hope this is a big fat hit for Scorsese, just so he can coast a little while on the goodwill that the film deserves to generate. And I don’t give a fuck about its Oscar chances, and to Scorsese’s credit, it doesn’t appear that he had it on his mind while making the film, either. This is, simply put, a good yarn, told well. What more could you ask for? ”Moriarty” out.