THE DEPARTED: savoring Nicholson at the top of his game

Watching Jack Nicholson ply his craft when he’s firing on all cylinders is one of cinema’s great experiences. It’s something we’ve been deprived of since 2006 and his ‘no-one can top me’ performance as Boston Irish Mafia boss Frank Costello in THE DEPARTED.

Frank’s a man obsessed with uncovering the rat in his organisation, but Jack’s the one chewing at the scenery. Costello is a uniquely Nicholson creation. When he speaks the film’s opening line, “I don’t want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me” it can be taken both as Costello wanting to shape the world he lives in, and Nicholson dominating the film he’s acting in.

He draws on his decades of experience and legend building to create a character that – until the Whitey Bulger trial – most of us non-Bostonians believed could only exist in a film. Costello’s evilness is operatic in scale and appearance. It’s a mark of his acting brilliance that he manages to go over-the-top without taking it too far. When he’s on-screen it’s like he’s in Technicolor and everyone else is black and white.

And it’s to the immense credit of director Martin Scorsese that Jack gets the space to be Jack without overwhelming the story to the detriment of the rest of the cast. Costello is the most colourful character but he gives his co-stars plenty of room to do their thing.

This story of lies, betrayal, and sacrifice was a welcome return to form for Scorsese, reminding us of the storytelling skills which earned him the title of “world’s greatest living director” in the 1970s and 80s, and winning him the Oscar for Best Director (the film also picked up Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Editing, and Best Adapted Screenplay). It’s a title I believe he fully deserves, but it’s also been a burden because everything he’s produced in the decades since has been measured against those earlier works. THE DEPARTED is not in the same category as “Taxi Driver”, “Raging Bull” or “Goodfellas” but it comes close. It certainly deserves to rank alongside “Casino.”

Matt Damon is Colin Sullivan, an arrogantly cocky and ambitious Massachusetts State Police officer with seriously divided loyalties. Growing up, his surrogate father was Costello, so when Sullivan gets into the force it’s natural that he keeps Sullivan informed of law enforcement’s attempts to build a case against Boston’s number one criminal.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Billy Costigan, a fellow Massachusetts State Police officer who goes

undercover as a member of Costello’s gang to help build that case. It soon becomes clear to Costello and the police that each has a traitor in their midst, and Costigan and Sullivan are tasked with discovering the identity of the rat.

Damon is icily impressive as the cold, devious and manipulative cop who’s completely unable to feel any genuine human emotions, while DiCaprio’s greatest achievement is to make you forget you’re watching tabloid tv’s favourite pretty boy superstar heart throb, and instead appreciate him as a serious actor totally dedicated to his work.

THE DEPARTED returns to one of Scorsese’s favourite themes – the family. There are repeated references to the importance of knowing where a person comes from and who his people are, when deciding whether or not they are trustworthy. Sullivan stands out in having no discernible family history, and he makes it clear in one scene with his girlfriend that he wants no childhood photos on display in their apartment.

The irony is that for all the talk about the importance of family in judging character, no one has what could be described as an ideal family. The only effectively functioning family are the tribal ones – the Irish, and the police. Senior figures within each fulfill the role of father figure; Costello for the gangsters, and Captain Oliver Queenan (Martin Sheen) for the police.

The three big names aside, there are so many other superb performances to savor in this film. Alec Baldwin, Ray Winstone, and Mark Wahlberg, who bagged himself a best supporting actor Oscar nomination, are all class acts. The one weak link in the project is Madolyn, the police psychiatrist, played by Vera Farmiga. She’s so flaky and unstable that she falls apart at the first hint of conflict or resistance. She’s just not credible as a professional whose job it is to counsel hardened police officers and offenders on probation.

Madolyn is thankfully a minor irritation in what is otherwise a masterful and exciting drama which building to a bloody and shocking climax. Scorsese finally got his hands on the best director Oscar in 2007 after 5 previous nominations not because the Academy felt guilty for having passed him over so many times in the past, but because he richly deserved it.