Short Summary is an original series in which I write brief reviews of movies, TV shows, video games, books, and more. Spoiler alert, just in case!

The Departed doesn’t tell us the story of a typical cat-and-mouse game. Instead, it shows us a game of two mice, crawling up and out of the gutters and chasing each other while the cats call the shots. There’s a rat in the Irish mob, there’s a mole within the Massachusetts State Police, and they have to expose one another before the cats come down on them both. The winner ends up turning the movie’s entire plot on its head, and that’s what separates its story from many others like it.

The two mice are Billy Costigan and Colin Sullivan, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon, respectively. One cat is Frank Costello, the head of the mob, played by Jack Nicholson. The other cat, I suppose, is the combination of the state police and the FBI, both looking to arrest Frank at last. However, the head of that operation is Captain Queenan, who’s played by Martin Sheen. The Departed remains compelling and worth getting through thanks to strong performances across the board. Although I have to give Mark Wahlberg credit for the best performance of the movie, playing Staff Sergeant Dignam.

Billy and Colin are two sides of the same coin, sharing a common surface yet viewing everything through totally opposing lenses. They have similar backgrounds, but as they aged, their roads diverged. This duality is the most interesting part about The Departed, especially when things aren’t as simple as black and white. Identity is also an interesting theme presented in the movie. Both Billy and Colin are leading double lives, and there are points during the movie that they have to examine where one life ends and the other begins. They have to choose what to do and consider who they might hurt, particularly when they can hurt themselves. Yet in some cases, both men have to do things despite the personal consequences.

I had only seen different scenes of The Departed, and they were out of sequence, so it was good to watch the movie in full and in order. I already loved the scenes I had watched, but obviously, watching the movie properly gave every scene necessary context and made it even better than I remember. The Departed has a long run time, and you have to pay close attention throughout or else you’re going to lose track of names, relationships, and circumstances. Yet, of course, the movie is well worth seeing, and you think about it long after it’s finished.