Mole. Rat. Whatever you want to call them, two men have been groomed to infiltrate the other’s organization. Colin Sullivan works for the Massachusetts State Police but reports insider information back to Irish Mob boss Frank Costello. Billy Costigan has been publicly stripped of his police commission but funnels criminal happenings to the police as an informant within Costello’s organization. What unfolds is a quadruple concentric helix, cat-and-mouse game where the police try to close in on Costello before the Mob can crack a big-time deal on stolen computer microprocessors—all the while Sullivan and Costigan continue to close in on each other, determined to identify and out the man who betrayed his supposed brotherhood.
This film is fascinating, exciting, and tense. It’s honestly my favorite Scorsese film (which is interesting, considering he didn’t write this one and it’s based on a Hong Kong action-thriller). The film is chock-full of excellent performances from a who’s who of white male actors: DiCaprio, Damon, Nicholson, Walberg, Sheen, Baldwin, and more. The music, the pacing, the style, all fantastic. It’s now been several weeks since I’ve seen it and I wish I had more to say, but—I loved it.