Spy vs. Spy
Remakes are usually infernal affairs, but 'The Departed' is the exception
By Andy Klein
Since the 1995 Casino, Martin Scorsese has stayed away from the sort of contemporary urban dramas that remain the touchstones of his career - films like Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), and GoodFellas (1990). Now, in the excellent thriller The Departed, he's back to similar subject matter, though with some major differences.
The most obvious is that it takes place amid the Irish gangs of Boston rather than the Italian mob in New York. In any number of ways, the two groups are nearly interchangeable - both springing from major immigrant populations of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, both Catholic and fiercely familial. Of course, in terms of speech and a thousand other cultural markers, they're utterly different. (And, with all due respect to the sons and daughters of Erin, the Italians have way better food.)
In a brief prologue - set, we are told, "some years ago" - we meet South Boston mob boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson), as he impresses an adolescent named Colin Sullivan (Conor Donovan), whose face immediately tips us off that he is destined to be played as an adult by Matt Damon ... and it's only moments before we've leapt two or three decades into the future and the foreshadowing is fulfilled. (Footage that appears to be from the 1975 busing riots, followed by scenes that refer to the Patriot Act, suggests a time gap of 25 to 30 years, which doesn't jibe with the leads' ages, but let's not quibble.)
The grown Colin is an ambitious up-and-comer in the Boston State Police, now assigned to the Special Investigations Unit devoted to "smashing ... or moderately disrupting ... organized crime in this city." He's not the best choice for the job: he has essentially spent most of his life playing the part of a straight arrow, but this is an almost unbelievably deep cover ruse at the behest of Costello, to whom he's loyal.
It's a game that has two sides: Indeed, Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio), a disgraced ex-officer with anger-management problems, who is making his way into Costello's inner circle, is actually still working for the force undercover, at the behest of Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen). Queenan and Sgt. Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) are the only ones who realize that Costigan's expulsion and fall from grace are fictions to enable him to win Costello's favor.
As if these double double lives weren't a cute enough hook, each young man eventually finds himself outwardly searching for the mole in his respective organization - that is, himself - while really trying to identify the spy in the other organization. This leads to all sorts of spiffy plot tangles, where, for instance, if Costigan informs Queenan of some upcoming action, Queenan confides in Sullivan, and Sullivan tips off Costello, who calls things off, then both sides are able to home in a little closer on their traitors.
Don't worry: It's all easier to follow on screen.
For all its links to the Scorsese films cited above, The Departed, as a project, actually seems more in line with his 1991 thriller, Cape Fear. As a star-heavy genre remake, it feels like Scorsese is running for cover after a series of high-profile projects that were commercial failures and only moderate critical successes, at best.
Whereas many viewers were aware that Cape Fear was a remake, far fewer will recognize that The Departed is based on a 2002 Hong Kong movie, Infernal Affairs, which was both a critical and commercial smash in Asia, winning the lion's share of the HK Film Awards, Taiwan's Golden Horse Awards, and HK Film Critics Awards. It was picked up by Miramax but released here only briefly (and not at all in Los Angeles).
In addition to having one of the cleverest, archest English-language titles in HK history, Infernal Affairs also had one of the best scripts. Hong Kong thrillers are better known for their meticulously constructed action set pieces than they are for their writing, but this one had a particularly complicated and well worked-out story.
Scorsese and screenwriter William Monahan have followed the outline of the plot quite closely. They've added the Wahlberg character and have combined both lead female parts into one greatly expanded role, played by Vera Farmiga. This results in an extra level of insane coincidence to the story - both guys independently meet and fall for the same woman? - but even the HK version is more concerned with the parallels between the two cops than with rigorous realism. (Frankly, if you're not familiar with the actresses, it's quite easy to confuse them in Infernal Affairs and think they are one character, as in the remake.)
At two and a half hours, The Departed is exactly 50 percent longer than Infernal Affairs. Most of this extra time is devoted to texture and character development. The older film achieved a great degree of emotional engagement without giving us all that much background or detail about the two men. As is frequently the case in HK films, directors Andrew Lau (not to be confused with star Andy Lau, in the Damon role) and Alan Mak lay out the characters as familiar types, trusting Andy Lau and Tony
Leung Chiu-Wai to make them three-dimensional sheerly through performance.
Scorsese clearly trusts his actors, but the script provides much more embellishment. Damon is perfectly cast: He's playing a variation of the identity-challenged role-players in The Talented Mr. Ripley and (to a lesser degree) the Bourne pictures; for a leading man, he is amazingly adept at being slickly untrustworthy. DiCaprio - who has now starred in three successive major Scorsese movies - is a talented enough actor that he is almost able to overcome his miscasting. Even beefed up, he still looks too babyfaced to play a convincing tough guy. This may also explain the ways in which his character is different from Leung's; where the latter was stoically burned out on living a double life, DiCaprio's Costigan seems to be having an aggressive nervous breakdown, which makes him less compelling as a hero.
Nicholson, on the other hand, is a complete joy. Once again playing a distinct character while somehow remaining unmistakably Jack, he is the main source of the film's wit (an area in which the American version is handily superior). Scene for scene, he is matched by Alec Baldwin, who is terrific in a much smaller part, as another police captain. It's hard not to wish that Baldwin had played Sheen's part; not only would he have been funnier, but his attitude would have made Captain Queenan a closer counterpart to Costello, in everything but age. Rip Torn, who's more age-appropriate, would also have been great. As Nicholson gets older, he's looking more and more like Torn, who inadvertently gave Nicholson his great breakthrough part, in Easy Rider, by leaving the role.
Nineteen times out of 20, I find remakes inferior to their sources. But, like Cape Fear, this is from the other 5 percent. As great as the original is, Scorsese has once again been able to reshape the material into something equally good, with different strengths and weaknesses (including, in one category or the other, some really gruesome violence). And, despite its length, The Departed never feels overlong - no small accomplishment in itself.
Published: 10/05/2006
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