"TheDeparted" Directedby: Martin Scorsese Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon,Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen, Mark Wahl- berg, Alec Baldwin MPAA rating: R (for adult language, intense violence and bloodshed) Runningtime: 150 minutes Best suited for: Nicholson and Scorsese fans Leastsuitedfor: the squea- mish, cop-lite fans, coinci- dence counters

I like Martin Scorsese. I generally enjoy his films, his vision and even his occasionally overthetop violence. Despite the intensity of Scorsese's carnage, it's rarely gratuitous, and I believe his characters are richly rendered and deeply engaging. In such exceptional films like "Goodfellas," "Casino" and "Raging Bull"-which more than one critic has claimed is the best film ever made-Scorsese's characters are flawed and often unscrupulous, but never withoua redemptive streak that sucks them up out of the muck to present realistic and forgivable foibles to an audience.

One of his best (and least appreciated) gems is "King of Comedy," about an egocentricborderline sociopath named Rupert Pupkin. Yet Pupkin is portrayed (by Robert De Niro) with such eccentric and heartfelmisery that, by the film's endone can't help but wish him the best of luck. (The film also features Jerry Lewis in his best roleever.) It's such well crafted and brutally honest characterization that makes a Scorsese film so exciting to watch.

Had Scorsese relied solely on such personalityrich characterization in "The Departed," I suspect the film may have easily stood as one of his finer efforts. But the director throws an arduous cat-and-mouse gambit into the mix that adds fragmented layers of complexity and too many coincidences, not to mention an additional 30 minutes that mar the final product.

In a sense, "The Departed" is Scorsese's "Scarface"-an epic story of greed and corruption, a morality tale of good vs. evil that results in colossal carnage when both sides refuse to budge. An incredibly gifted cast includes Jack Nicholson as Frank Costello, an Irish mobster with few redeeming qualities. One could actually perceive Nicholson's performance as being one-dimensional, except the man's sole dimension is so riveting that one can believe Costello to be, in reality, so truly vile and evil.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Billy Costigan, a good Boston kid whose lower-class family has mostly turned to crime to survive. Costigan joins the police force for all the right reasons and is quickly targeted by Capt. Oliver Queenan (Martin Sheen) to penetrate Costello's mob. The Costigans and Frank Costello have a long history together and Queenan sees Costigan as a potentially perfect mole. Billy reluctantly agrees and, after a bit of suspicious foreplay on Costello's part, Billy is accepted as Frank's newest underling.

Matt Damon is Colin Sullivan, who as a kid fell under Frank Costello's influence, and as a Boston cop clandestinely uses that connection to rise quickly through the department. Sullivan's ostensibly squeakyclean image affords him a golden opportunity to alert Costello's gang to the cops' repeated attempts to nail the mobster-and the police soon realize there's a mole inside their own department.

But Costello becomes aware there's a mole in his organization as well, and the two infiltrators- Costigan and Sullivan-become desperately intent on smoking each other out.

Unfortunately, at this point, "The Departed" becomes both unnecessarily complicated and fragmented. The film is already two and a half hours long, and I suspect that much was regrettably left on the cutting-room floor. I don't doubt an extended "Director's Cut" will appear on DVD-and likely provide a much better story.

Coincidences also arise: for instance, Costigan and Sullivan fall for the same police psychologist (Vera Farmiga)-and why the heck is a deep undercover mole, supposedly having been tossed off the force, seeing a police shrink anyway?

An unexpectedly hurried and somewhat unbelievable resolution also mars "The Departed." I generally don't mind my films ending with a bang-but this one's such a quick bang. A pity.

Unfortunately, too, revealing more of the film's flaws would necessitate a spoiler review-and for those of you intent on seeing "The Departed" with all its secrets intact, I'm reluctant to write more. Suffice to say that many viewers will find the exemplary cast and Scorsese's violent intensity provocative enough to overcome the flaws. (In which case, I can't run, but I can hide.) However, if you come away from "The Departed" counting the holes both in logic and in sequence, you've been fairly warned.