Donnie Brasco

One terrific movie... Pacino and Depp are a match made in acting heaven, riffing off each other with astonishing subtlety and wit.

The true soul of the New York mob is portrayed in Donnie Brasco, a first-class Mafia thriller that is also in its way a love story -- perhaps director Mike Newell's best.

You wouldn't mistake Donnie Brasco for a great movie or an important one, but it's something that's become almost as rare in American movies: a consistently absorbing and intelligent adult entertainment.

Perhaps the most impressive thing that Newell has done with Donnie Brasco is to cull an atypically low-key and introspective performance from Al Pacino, an actor known for manic, scenery-chewing efforts.

Depp's tight, guarded performance is almost painful to watch, and Newell seems to have reined in the flamboyant Pacino, whose portrait of the mobster as a grumpy old woman may be his best work in years.

Because the filmmakers have skewed the story into a Donnie-Lefty lovefest, the breakage of their trust signals the breakage of Donnie's spirit even in triumph. Case closed. It's the kind of fade-out we might expect from the it's-all-hopeless era of '60s counterculture movies. It's emotionally effective, but also a cheat.

That bland, opaque quality is a disadvantage here; whatever else [Depp] is capable of, making audiences feel his pain is not at the top of the list.

What to say about this movie? We have the incredible portrayal of Al Pacino as a veteran mobster with vulnerabilities, Johnny Depp in a less eccentric role than usual, Michael Madsen once again delivering an effortful interpretation, in addition to a good work of direction by Mike Newell. Also noteworthy is the instrumental soundtrack by Patrick Doyle, especially in the opening minutes.

that the government and the mafia in general use the same methods, only the mafia pays more and lives less. As for the film, it is simply about a fight between criminals and an agent with his family

Pretty good mob film, very much a slow burn but good acting and story. Similar to Goodfellas.

Rated M for Meh. The cast is fine, some great actors with Al Pacino and Johnny Depp. But the story is rather dull and slow. The first half hour nothing happens, then a montage of like ten minutes a lot happens and back to slowness. Godfather movies aren’t fast either but they mostly had bigger (?) and more well rounded casts. And a much better story. This story might have been okay if it wasn’t so difficult to pay attention because of the dullness.

Pour un film d’un infiltré dans la mafia, c’est falot, ça manque d’envergure tant dans la mise en scène que chez les acteurs (appréciables) qui ne donnent pas vraiment le meilleur d’eux-mêmes, coincés dans des rôles mal écrits. Pourtant l’histoire est tout à fait intéressante et le film se laisse suivre, quoique d’un oeil distrait seulement ou du moins assez endormi… Nombre de films du genre font bien mieux et Donnie Brasco est et reste une déception, certes pas totale mais certainement évidente. La lenteur du film est à faire mourir de honte une tortue, car en effet, le film se traîne lamentablement d’un bout à l’autre. On se demande des fois si c’est un film policier ou un putain de somnifère ! qu’est-ce qu’il s’est passé ? l’auraient-ils fait exprès en fait ? des fois, on se le demande !