The Departed (Movie 2006): Too Much Jack Nicholson

The Departed with Leonardo DiCaprio.

Best Picture Academy Award winner The Departed boasts a respectable pedigree: the cop thriller was directed by Martin Scorsese; edited by Thelma Schoonmaker; shot by Michael Ballhaus; accompanied by Howard Shore’s music; adapted by William Monahan from the 2002 Hong Kong hit Infernal Affairs; and it stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin, Mark Wahlberg, and 2005 Los Angeles Film Critics Best Actress winner Vera Farmiga.

That The Departed turned out to be a (generally) efficient entry in the cop flick genre should come as no surprise to anyone. What I found (somewhat) surprising is that the Scorsese effort that would finally earn the veteran director an Oscar turned out to be little more than an A-budgeted, run-of-the-mill B-movie – one that happens to be both way overlong and laughably absurd, and that features some of the worst overacting ever captured on camera.

The multiple-award-winning Jack Nicholson is responsible for some of the most sensitive, well-rounded performances of the 1970s. Every few years, Nicholson still manages to create a thoroughly believable screen character. In The Departed, however, his portrayal of a Boston mobster comes across as the sort of self-indulgent, over-the-top burlesque that ruins dramas even while winning critical raves and assorted awards. “Ohmygawd, did you see how he manages to lift one eyebrow all the way to the top of his forehead while the other goes way down to the bottom of his lower lip? That’s real acting!”

Scorsese, who should have known better, clearly let the veteran actor do as he pleased, a mistake the director had also made several times in the past with master scenery-chewer Robert De Niro (e.g., New York, New York, The King of Comedy). Perhaps Scorsese was hoping for the Boston underworld’s Randle Patrick McMurphy of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; instead, he got the male Baby Jane of the Irish mafia. The only thing missing is the curly blond wig.

While Nicholson’s foaming-at-the-mouth thug throws The Departed completely off-balance, Leonardo DiCaprio and Vera Farmiga try to pick up the pieces. As always – even when miscast, as in Scorsese’s The Aviator – DiCaprio is thoroughly convincing.

Yet, Farmiga is the one who delivers the film’s most authentic performance. Surrounded by a number of actors (Nicholson, Alec Baldwin, the Oscar-nominated Mark Wahlberg, among others) who seem to believe that more is better, the actress opted for a different route: she obstinately underplays her already underwritten character to such an extent that she ends up stealing the show. I should note that the flat homage to Carol Reed’s The Third Man near the end of The Departed is not Farmiga’s fault.

Since I haven’t seen Wai-Keung Lau and Alan Mak’s Infernal Affairs, I don’t know which of the flaws found in The Departed stem from the (much shorter) original and which ones were concocted by Scorsese and William Monahan (and/or the studio, Warner Bros., and/or the film’s producers). But those flaws are there, ranging from the thriller’s frequent lack of thrills and its unnecessary 152-minute running time (a good half hour could easily have been excised) to a – literally – mind-blowing finale that makes a bloody mess out of heads, logic, and any sense of verisimilitude The Departed might have had.

The Departed (movie 2006) cast & crew

Director: Martin Scorsese.

Screenplay: William Monahan.
From Alan Mak & Felix Chong’s screenplay for the 2002 film Infernal Affairs.

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio. Matt Damon. Jack Nicholson. Vera Farmiga. Mark Wahlberg. Alec Baldwin. Martin Sheen. Ray Winstone. Anthony Anderson. Kevin Corrigan. James Badge Dale.

Leonardo DiCaprio The Departed movie image: Warner Bros.