“Donnie Brasco” (1997)

Donnie Brasco

Grade: A-

Like the shoot-em-up Western, the American Mafia movie is a timeless genre. As time goes on, however, telling an original Mafia story gets harder and harder. Donnie Brasco, released in 1997 and directed by Mike Newell, shares obvious DNA with the gangster classics of yesteryear — no surprise when Al Pacino gets top billing — yet it still offers enough fresh perspective to become something close to a classic itself, tweaking the familiar tropes in two key ways: 1) Donnie Brasco‘s wise guys are far more destitute and unglamorous than what we’re used to seeing; and 2) the main title character (played by Johnny Depp) is an undercover FBI agent. It’s a poignant moral conundrum of mob survival on the fringes, made all the more difficult when veteran mobster Lefty Ruggerio (Pacino) takes Donnie under his wing, loving him like a son. The doomed loyalties inevitably lead to a quiet, tragic, terrific ending.

So, yes, Donnie Brasco covers new thematic territory that sets it apart from other gangster movies. But the main reason why it works so well is simply because of the acting, Pacino in particular. His restrained, subdued performance as Lefty is among his finest work, a welcome change of pace from the expressive (i.e., over-the-top) style displayed in much of his 1990s filmography (e.g., Heat, Carlito’s Way, Any Given Sunday, Scent of a Woman, etc.). Here, he’s like Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven, bringing pathos and understatement to an aging, unrepentant gunman. Depp, too, is strong and believable as Brasco, his fiery outbursts effectively conveying inner turmoil. The student/mentor relationship he forms with Lefty is the film’s heart and soul — the reluctant rat and the unwitting target-who-deserves-to-be-taken-down-but-not-like-this. “Based on a true story” really means something in this movie.

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More by Al Pacino

• Donnie Brasco (1997) A-
• Gigli (2003) F

More by Johnny Depp

• Ed Wood (1994) A-
• Donnie Brasco (1997) A-
• Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) A-

More by Mike Newell

• Donnie Brasco (1997) A-
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) A-

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