"The Best Gangster Movie Since The Godfather" screams the sales pitch on the cover, and for once the hype is justified.
Based on a true story, Johnny Depp is FBI special agent Joe Pistone, who assumes the identity of Donnie Brasco and befriends 'Lefty' Ruggiero (Pacino) as a means of infilitrating the New York mafia. At first the relationship between the two is little more than a kind of mutual ambivalence, but as time passes they grow closer and a friendship develops. Donnie's distress at seeing what ambition still burns within the ageing Lefty being constantly dashed - particularly when the younger, more outwardly-intimidating Sonny Black (Michael Madsen) is 'promoted' ahead of him - is palpable.
Donnie's liking for Lefty grows in spite of the fact that he sees Lefty carry out some hideous acts of violence, and eventually begins to participate in the thuggery himself. Despite initially being visibly and understandably repulsed by the machinations of the clan around him, as he gets drawn ever further into the circle, the lines between normality - his job, his wife and family - and the violent world of his new associates become increasingly blurred. When the mob finally suspect a 'mole' within their ranks, Donnie's instincts tell him to walk away, yet he balks at doing so in the knowledge that by so doing his friend will take the rap as the one who introduced him in the first place.
What really makes this film work is the tremendous chemistry between the two leads. One instantly warms to the suave, charming Donnie, yet as his work / life begins to veer out of control he becomes a gradually less likeable character. Paradoxically, one cannot help but feel a kind of sorrow - as Donnie unquestionably does - for the increasingly desperate, almost doomed Lefty. Pacino, of course, is an old hand at this kind of thing and plays it with customary presence, but Depp is the real star, proving his versatility as an actor in a role a million miles from, say, Edward Scissorhands or Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas.
Ultimately, this is a tense and engrossing - if a touch confused - tale of morality that grips the viewer from the off and never lets go. < less
