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Johnny Depp is the titular Donnie, a jeweler who soon comes to the attention of Mafia hood Lefty (Pacino) who sees something in Donnie and starts to take him into the family, with the ultimate intention of becoming a wiseguy. Lefty is a stooped, almost broken character, resigned to a life looking over his shoulder and forced to watch much more younger and brash hoods take superior positions in the family, such as Sonny Black (Michael Madsen). Donnie isn't quite who he seems however, he's in fact Joey Pistone an undercover FBI agent out to get as much evidence against the hoods as he can gather and jail as many as he can. The further he's taken in though, the more distant he grows from his family and the closer he grows to Lefty.

When it comes to Mafia movies it's easier to name any of the Godfathers or Goodfellas as the greats. 'Donnie Brasco' however, deservedly should be alongside them as it's as telling and as powerful as any of it's predecessors. Perhaps the reason that it gets overlooked is that it forgoes any romantic image and seeks to instead to be a more grimy and realistic look at the life of a hood. There's none of the romantic sweep or grand opera of a Coppola and they're certainly not as flash or as charming as Scorcese would have them. Instead Newell portrays them as little more than spoilt thugs lashing out when they can't get their way in a restaurant. And loyalty stretches as far as to whose word they believe first: yours or the guy ratting you out. Loyalty here is the fact that when they call for you it'll be your best friend that does the shooting.

There's little focus on the actual crimes that Sonny, Lefty and co are being investigated by Joe for. We all know or could guess as to what they're doing, so why should Newell go over old ground?
Instead he focuses upon the rat's nest of shadowy meetings and drinking sessions in seedy dives, where plans and betrayals are hatched. That's not to say Newell has crafted a film of all talk. A sequence in a Japanese restaurant where there's an argument over shoes, crackles with tension as much as the restaurant in 'The Godfather' when Michael first become baptised with blood.
And a night-time chat in a car between Lefty and Donnie is the movies equivalent of Michael giving Fredo a very special kiss.

So with incident a-plenty, there's also plenty for the actors to get their teeth into and they don't disappoint. When Depp got his Oscar nomination as a drunken pirate there were a few raised eyebrows and comments that there were a lot better roles that he should have been recognised for. 'Donnie Brasco' is one of them, as he takes what would normally be a fairly simple character and just runs with it and deepens it. As he schmoozes with the hoods he's captivatingly convincing, but equally at home as the blue-eyed FBI guy, steadily getting compromised. And as his home life disintegrates around him, there's uncomfortable contrasts to the happy life of Lefty and Depp smoothly lets out the angst and rage against all the wrong people. Depp has the unique quality of being able to take any character and colour and shade them beyond your first impressions.

And this was a role tailor made for Pacino. There's no "Hoo-hah!" shouting nonsense from him here, just a deeply ingrained, melancholic performance of a man who knows he's been wasting himself in a life that's ultimately going to literally waste him. When Pacino dials down a role and underplays it, that's when we see the real, raw talent of the man shining through. Seperately Depp and Pacino are majestic, but together they just take this already riveting drama up a notch. There's fine supporting acts too. Anne Heche is surprisingly good as Joey's long-suffering wife, but the show is nearly stolen by Madsen's vicious Sonny, just a shade below his 'Reservoir Dogs' psycho. He may be type-cast, but when has Madsen ever let you down? It's a snarling, rottweiler performance that practically explodes in the aforementioned restaurant scene, that also shows particularly fine playing by Depp.

As it doesn't strive for the epic tone of a 'Godfather', it runs to just over a couple of hours which perhaps is wrapping things up just too neatly. The film gives you the impression that the case takes place over a couple of months, but a final caption suggests Joey was actually there for a good couple of years. Perhaps a case of too much trimming by Newell. But ultimately, it ends on a morally ambiguous note as cold and ruthless as Fredo's doomed lake trip.

Maybe after the success of 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and Pacino's mini-revival in 'Insomnia', 'Donnie Brasco' will gain a more appreciative audience as it's been injustly ignored in the past. Depp and Pacino have rarely been better than they are here and the whole film reeks of class and authenticity. Anyone else who's going to ignore it from now on deserves to be sleeping with the fishes.

link directly to this review at https://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=291&reviewer=293
originally posted: 05/22/04 00:21:04
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