elegy for a hit-man

Rating: 9/10 (25 May 2007)

This film was critically well-received when first released, and almost developed a cult following. But it had two historical problems going for it - it reminded too many people of "The Goodfellas" and "Reservoir Dogs". (In the DVD add-on featurette, they admit that production on the film was held up out of fear of comparisons with "Goodfellas".) As to comparisons with "Goodfellas": I think Donnie Brasco works well as a complimentary film to Scorcese's undeniable powerhouse mob film. Since both are true stories, I have a suspicion that many of the characters in the two films are based on the same real people, so we get to see them from two different perspectives.
As to comparisons with "Reservoir Dogs": It is well to remember that Tarantino's film is itself derivative of Ringo Lam's "City on Fire". In fact, the 'undercover cop in the mob" film has become almost a separate genre in Hong Kong, the most recent hit in the tradition being "Infernal Affairs", remade by Scorcese as "The Departed"; the point being that Hong Kong pretty much set the bench-mark for this type of film, and so American films working the same material can't help but use elements originally developed by the Chinese.
As to the film itself: It relies very heavily on the performances of Depp and Pacino, and fortunately, they are brilliant. The final conversation between their characters is tense because Pacino plays it so straight, and his character talks in such clipped, abbreviated sentences, we can no longer read him any better than Depp's character can. (A lot of the film's tension derives from the announced fact that when the mob decides to give you a bullet-ridden retirement, it always sends your best friend to do it.) There are weaknesses in the film, principally in the script. the narrative threads leading to certain events are left unclear and unresolved; and certain connections screaming to be made are left unnoticed.
But Depp and Pacino are a winning team, largely because they operate with the same idea of what it means to develop character as an actor. We know they're them, so to speak, Depp and Pacino; but they're also equally Donnie and Lefty.
A tense, occasionally amusing, and ultimately very sad elegy for an over-the-hill hit-man with no cards left to play.