A tough movie

Rating: 7/10 (25 June 2009)

This is the story of a New York Mafia gang and some of its members viewed from the inside, plus the story of a FBI agent who manages to infiltrate himself in the gang through the good offices of a petty member of it whose role is performed by Al Pacino in which was maybe the best performance of his career. There is of course a lot of bloodshed since the lives of those men are torn between to kill or be killed. It's also a story about human nature featured by the strange friendship that arises between the infiltrated agent(who has sometimes to behave like one of the so called "wise men" of the Mafia gang) and the member who acts as his "protector" and also featured by the familiar problems of these two prominent characters;for the infiltrated agent (performed by Johnny Depp) because he has got to stay out of home for long periods which annoys his wife very much and even puts his marriage at risk; for the petty Mafia member because he has severe problems with his son who is a drug addict. The second half of the movie is somewhat weaker than the first one since it's more about the conspiracies of the gang and the ensuing gunfights and killings than about the psychological analysis of characters shown through their actions and words. Anyway it's still a good movie, well directed and well acted by everyone.