“Lies. Betrayal. Sacrifice. How far will you take it?”
The film’s headline says it all; The Departed is a movie where bad guys carry a badge and a gun and the cops drive the getaway car. It delves into the inner machinations of the Irish mafia and its conflict with the Massachusetts State Police. The star-studded cast is led by Jack Nicholson, who plays Frank Costello, a mafia boss who works his mole, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), into the top ranks of the State Police. Meanwhile, Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a police officer who goes undercover to exploit and end Costello’s violent grip on the city.
As the State Police realize there is an informer in their midst, Costello realizes there is one in his. Both send their moles to find out the identity of the traitor. Vera Farmiga plays the psychiatrist Madolyn, who ends up falling in love with both Costigan and Sullivan. In additon to Nicholson, Damon and DiCaprio, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin, Ray Winstone and Mark Wahlberg all play significant roles that intertwine and exacerbate the film’s themes of lies, betrayal and sacrifice.
The Departed is dark, gritty and violent, but delivers with a brilliance that makes it deserving of the more than the 40 awards it received, including Best Picture at the Oscars. It is thick with twists and turns, with the final climax coming as Costigan and Sullivan realize their precarious positions and try to salvage their crumbling false identities, as well as their real ones.